Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, deserves access to quality health care.
Every year, millions of children die from avoidable causes that are easy to treat and prevent. With a focus on children and mothers, BRAC’s health programs ensure people from the most disadvantaged communities can access critical health care and live healthy, productive lives.
Your Impact
countries reached with health programs
people in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh with access to clean water
community health workers delivering last-mile care
reduction in infant mortality in Uganda
BRAC’s network of community health workers has reached millions of people with critical health services.
For decades, BRAC’s groundbreaking model of community-based health care has brought lifesaving health services and information directly to the doorsteps of the people living in poverty. Smart investments in health care have a profound impact on individual lives, particularly for mothers and children, and yield long-term social and economic benefits for society as a whole.
Our Approach
At the heart of BRAC’s health programs are trained and dedicated community health workers who deliver critical care door to door. Women are trained to provide basic preventative and curative care in their communities and to diagnose and refer patients with complications. They focus on maternal and child health, family planning, nutrition promotion, infectious disease prevention, and more, and earn a modest income from the sale of basic health goods.
Community-based care
Through its community health workers and youth empowerment clubs, BRAC provides critical information and services to women of childbearing age. Services include sexual and reproductive health education, distribution of condoms and oral contraceptives, referrals to health facilities for long-acting, reversible contraception, and nutrition for pregnant mothers.
Sexual and reproductive health
As countries develop, non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, are on the rise. These chronic diseases, and their complications, have the potential to overwhelm under-resourced health systems. To combat this, BRAC is screening for and treating diabetes and hypertension in Bangladesh and promoting healthy lifestyles to prevent these diseases.
Non-communicable diseases
Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is critical to public health. BRAC’s WASH services increase access to safe water, provide sanitary latrines and toilets, and engage communities to encourage positive behavior change and reduce the spread of preventable diseases. Through a community-based approach, BRAC sets up village WASH committees, training community members as leaders that assess, improve, and maintain WASH infrastructure and practices in their villages.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Digital health platforms have the potential to improve the delivery of care and save lives. In Uganda, BRAC’s community workers have used an innovative mobile health platform since 2017, seeking to leverage insights from the digital tool to drive innovation in the coverage, quality, speed, and equity of health service delivery. Over the past two years, BRAC has used data from nearly 500,000 households to improve how community health workers provide care to pregnant women, follow up with newborn babies, and treat malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia among young children.
Digital health innovation
Our work in action
Saving lives at the last mile
BRAC’s cadre of community health workers in Uganda is among the largest in the country. Meet Ruth, a community health worker delivering critical care to mothers and children in her community.
My country, Bangladesh, has seen a health revolution in my lifetime. Maternal mortality has decreased by 75 percent since 1980, infant mortality has more than halved since 1990. Such rapid changes have almost no historical precedent.”
Program Highlights
World NTD Day: Deworming out-of-school children is more vital than ever
Intestinal worms are the most common infectious disease in the world, with more than a billion children worldwide at risk. School-based deworming programs are low cost and highly effective at improving children’s health, increasing their educational attainment, and even boosting their income years down the line. But more than 40 million children have been affected by COVID-19 school closures in Bangladesh, disrupting a vital avenue for deworming.
Related Research
Reducing child mortality in the last mile: Experimental evidence on community health promoters in Uganda
Millions of children die from preventable diseases every year in the countries where BRAC operates. A rigorous evaluation of our community health worker program in partnership with Living Goods in Uganda showed that the program reduced child mortality by 27 percent and infant mortality by 33 percent, costing only $68 per year of life saved.
Exemplars in global health: Community health workers in Bangladesh
A new report by Last Mile Health highlights Bangladesh as an exemplar in global health. Their research highlights the critical role of NGOs, including BRAC and icddr,b, in scaling Bangladesh’s community health worker program alongside the Government of Bangladesh and sparking a health revolution over the past several decades.
Bangladesh oral rehydration solution case study
Oral rehydration solution, a simple but life-saving solution made of water, salt, and sugar, is used to treat children suffering from severe dehydration caused by diarrhea. A case study on the uptake of oral rehydration therapy in Bangladesh highlights BRAC’s role in training 12 million mothers to make oral rehydration solution and saving countless lives.
