Community Health (Page 22)

Aging well where you live is a hope for many people. As healthcare plans shift away from hospital stays to have people enjoy life where they live, innovation is needed to help support them.  That's where initiatives like Health TAPESTRY come in.  
 

It’s International Women’s Day so let’s shine a spotlight on some inspiring women who, with barriers removed, show they can achieve amazing success. Here, we pay tribute to the many remarkable women in our organization or who have used our programs as a springboard to enlighten theirs or others’ lives. 

Chicken pox is a common and generally low risk illness, but overcrowded conditions in large makeshift settlements in Bangladesh means the disease is able to spread rapidly.  With over 34,500 cases of the disease reported since December, the worry is that this illness risks compounding many other vulnerabilities of the people who live here.

A successful project, like solar-powered water pumps, relies not just on aid workers, but community members who work closely with them. 

In Mali, most infant deaths are associated with diseases that can be treated with medication. What kills babies, among other things, is that these diseases are often detected too late. Why? There are a number of reasons, but in Koulikoro, in the villages where the Red Cross team is working, one of the biggest reasons seems to have to do with tradition.

More than 30 years ago, Dr. Praphan Phanuphak diagnosed the first three cases of HIV in Thailand. It was February of 1985, and he was 35-years-old at the time. He was working at a hospital run by Thai Red Cross at. Four years after those first few cases, he co-founded the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, where he stills works today as its director. 

Best known for our emergency response work, the Canadian Red Cross is often first at the scene providing basic necessities to evacuees during times of disaster. Less well-known, but just as important to the Red Cross, is helping evacuated communities get back to their regular lives and celebrate being able to return home.

Whether ensuring people are getting the equipment they need, or washing and maintaining returned equipment, the Red Cross Health Equipment Loan Program (HELP) relies on its volunteers.