HEALTH
STORIES OF CHANGE TIMELY Interventions Speedy access to ambulances and loans means more healthy outcomes for women and their families.
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
GOAL To improve the health of women, adolescent girls and children by tackling gender inequality, a root cause of maternal and child deaths. The project was established in vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, Ghana, Haiti, Nigeria and Senegal.
HAITI
GHANA
Village savings and loan associations (also known as VSLAs or savings groups) demonstrate what it means to be “stronger together,” says Chris Armstrong, director of health at Plan International Canada. “Savings groups are a community-based approach to microfinance. They bring together 15 to 25 people who each contribute small amounts of money to create a shared pool of funds.” If a family is experiencing poverty, health care costs can deplete their income, leaving them unable to afford treatment in life-or-death situations. But when families combine their resources, they can lift each other out of the cycle of poverty that threatens their lives and livelihoods. For Nanbos, who lives in Ghana, being a member meant he could help his sister when she needed it most. “I took out a loan from my group’s fund to pay for services for my sister after she had a miscarriage. The doctors were able to save her life.”
“The ambulance didn’t take long to arrive.
It saved my life and my son’s life.” – Nadia, 28
DURATION 6.5 years
PROJECT BUDGET $72.6 million
Plan International Canada provided ambulances to the Haitian National Ambulance Center to save mothers’ and newborn babies’ lives. Haiti has the highest maternal-mortality rate in the Americas, with 630 women’s deaths for 100,000 live births. Nadia, 28, experienced a complicated delivery while giving birth to her first child last November. The local health centre where she had been admitted couldn’t help her, so the ambulance took her to the hospital 70 kilometres away, where she received a Caesarean section.
SUPPORTERS Global Affairs Canada and individual Canadian donors
Women who received prenatal care four times during pregnancy
BEFORE
AFTER
DIRECT BENEFICIARIES 2 . 4 million people, including more than 1.5 million women and girls
55% 73%
FOR ALL THE RESULTS, READ THE IMPACT REPORT
2022 Annual Report | DIGEST 23
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