When the 1994 genocide in Rwanda ravaged health facilities and left a decimated workforce in its wake, the population’s health suffered greatly. Since then, however, the country has significantly improved its health system. The USAID Rwanda Family Health Project (FHP) worked with local communities to increase access to and the quality of community-based family health…
For more than a decade, Kenya has faced one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. In support of the government’s efforts to fight the disease, the USAID Kenya Pharma program provided drugs, supplies, and equipment needed for HIV/AIDS care and treatment. The program established and operated a pharmaceutical supply chain management system…
It’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), so I should probably start by saying: I’m a huge advocate of breastfeeding. It can be a lovely way for a mother and baby to bond, and it offers a wonderful source of nutrition to a growing infant. It appears to have many benefits to mothers and babies and a positive impact on…
After work, once every couple of months, I have the luxury of making my way across town to the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Washington, D.C. Affiliate meeting to spend a couple of hours eating lukewarm Peruvian chicken and discussing issues affecting midwives at the local and national level. It’s not the meetings themselves that…
The slender young woman was slumped on the metal chair, her malnourished baby in her arms. “I have no milk,” she said, pulling her breast out of her shirt. “I just give him water because it is so hot.” As a Peace Corps volunteer in those days, I struggled in my halting Hausa to explain…
The theme of this year’s American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, hosted in Chicago, was “Health in All Policies” (HiAP). This theme emphasized the need for policymakers in all sectors to recognize that environments where we live, work, and attend school have serious implications on health outcomes. Julián Castro, the U.S. Secretary of Housing…
2015 is a significant year for the future of international development. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not only expiring, but also consultations for the incoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are rapidly taking place. The SDGs are continuing the MDGs with 17 proposed goals, to be hashed out at the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly…