The Kasompe, Zambia Kafwa group shares thanks!

This week, as we recognize the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., we wish to share our gratitude with YOU! HealthEd Connect programs empowering women and children through evidence-based health, education, and advocacy are made possible thanks to your support. Our health worker volunteers and community school colleagues are grateful for the opportunities to learn, grow, and help others. We thank you!

Watch this short video of thanks from our team in Kasompe, Zambia!

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Soyamsebika baking group with other classmates celebrating earning their certificates!

With the help of a HealthEd Connect leadership development award, some of our friends in Kathmandu, Nepal have just finished their beginner’s baking course! Three Soyamsebika health worker volunteers and five community women joined together to take a 30-day course over basic baking techniques, with the hope of advancing later on. Nepal coordinator, Pinkey, shared about the group’s hopes to start a small business, writing “All are searching for a good opportunity, [they will] do the hard work and manage a small income to support their families.”

She also shared that the group learned how to make many different items within the month-long course: “We learned to make bread and buns, croissants, cinnamon rolls and Danishes, donuts, pizza, brownies, cookies, sponges, and basic cakes.” After completing a more advanced course, the women plan to start a small business together, uplifting financial autonomy for the women involved. Having a way to generate income is an important step towards empowering women within their own homes and communities! We look forward to hearing what this group cooks up next!

We are feeling grateful, because there’s now access to clean water at the Mulundu Community Center in Luapula, Zambia! Thanks to a generous grant from the Community of Christ World Hunger Committee, this water project includes drilling a borehole to an underground water source and installing a solar-powered pump to fill a 5,000-liter water tank connected with a faucet. 

Our Kafwa volunteer health worker leaders organized for the first day of drilling at the center. Together with community members, the Kafwa team, and children who attend preschool at the center, there was quite a crowd to welcome the workmen and share in the excitement when they hit the water source! (Click below to see a video from the first day of drilling and the group’s excitement!)

The water now supplied to this location can be used by surrounding community members as potable drinking water, tending the community gardens that nourish families, and proper sanitation at the center, where numerous programs take place. We are thrilled and grateful for all the ways this access to clean water will impact the health and wellbeing of the community!  

It's #501cDay!* At HealthEd Connect, we are grateful to be part of an international team that works to empower women and children through evidence-based health, education, and advocacy! Every day brings new opportunities to listen to community wisdom and support programs that change lives.

We invite you to share: what's YOUR favorite part of being involved in HealthEd Connect?

*501c Day is a celebration of community impact through nonprofits, recognized on May 1 (5.01). Nonprofit Connect is pioneering this campaign to shine a spotlight on the nonprofit sector and the individuals who are part of it. 

This week, on April 25, the World Health Organziation (WHO) recognizes World Malaria Day and the need for continued support in combatting the effects of malaria, especially on those most vulnerable. As efforts continue to make preventative solutions and antimalarial drugs more accessible, women and children are still disproportionately affected. Pregnant women are at risk due to their reduced immunity to malaria, increasing the chances that both mother and child experience unwanted outcomes. Young children remain most in danger, though, with the WHO reporting:

“In 2022, an estimated 4 out of 5 malaria-related deaths in the African Region were among children under 5 years of age. Inequities in access to education and financial resources further exacerbates risk: children under 5 years of age from the poorest households in sub-Saharan Africa are 5 times more likely to be infected with malaria than those from the wealthiest households.”

Our volunteer health worker colleagues have seen first-hand how malaria impacts their communities and are there to provide support! They educate families on how to reduce the risk, warning signs of a possible malaria case, and encouragement to visit the clinic and receive antimalarial medications when someone falls ill. Our colleagues also teach families how to make Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) to combat dehydration, which often happens as the body experiences the negative symptoms of malaria. This health education and support is life-saving! 

This World Malaria Day, we thank our volunteer community health worker colleagues for their support in addressing malaria and working toward a healthier future!

This weekend, April 7, we recognize World Health Day and the impact health has on human rights, equity, and empowerment. Our community health worker colleagues recognize the importance of bridging the gap to accessible health care, and in 2023, dedicated 46,876 hours to addressing local health issues! From the start of our organization, we have operated from the grassroots level, meaning every program supported by HealthEd Connect can be tied back to a community, a health concern, and the volunteers who serve there. Community health workers are advocates, helpers, and sources of trusted information to those around them. By working together to tackle health concerns, they empower community members through hope, education, and respect. We are so proud to support the work of our colleagues as they deliver babies, immunize children, visit home-based clients, build new sanitation systems, and serve in clinics and hospitals. We recognize their work on World Health Day!

To learn more about the empowering impacts made in 2023, visit our Programs page!

The solar panel for the pump

New taps outside the community center

Water storage tanks

The UN observance of World Water Day is each March, a time to reflect on the importance of access to clean water and sanitation systems. As we consider what clean water truly means to a community, HealthEd Connect is thrilled to share about a new water system at the community center in Mazembe, Malawi!

Thanks to USAID and UNICEF, a brand new solar-powered borehole has been built at the center, with new taps, solar panels to power the pump, and two large water tanks to provide storage and water pressure. We are proud that the Mazembe Sinkhani center was chosen due to its location, maintenance, and security, along with the Sinkhani volunteers who can help to see this new system is cared for. Now that this is available, the group will work with the community to make a schedule of when this will be available, and how it can be maintained for long-term use!

Organizations like USAID and UNICEF are working toward increasing this critical access because collecting clean water can be difficult and requires carrying heavy buckets, often over far distances. Additionally, if pumps are closed over the weekends, families must either try to carry extra water or ration what they have to last over several days. Girls and women are often disproportionately tasked with water collection, putting them at risk of violence and educational delays. We look forward to hearing from our colleagues in Mazembe about the impacts they see in their community through access to this new water system!