Women Volunteers are keeping their communities healthy and cholera-free

The brave Mureha, Salehah and Amena have many success stories to tell. “I can feel the impact of my role as a CHV on my community, especially when it comes to cholera prevention. I have trained many children in my village on handwashing practices and I keep raising awareness of the mothers on how to get clear water, by chlorination or boiling it, to make sure that there is safe drinking water in their households,” says Mureha.

The health volunteers can really make a difference when it comes to the health behavior of their community members. “There is a woman in my village who was completely opposed to breastfeeding. For her last child, I followed her pregnancy from the very beginning until the delivery of the child. I tried to make her feel confident enough to breastfeed her child, supervising her closely and giving her advice on how to feed her child in the most natural way. The mother kept breastfeeding during two years and she became a strong advocate of natural breastfeeding in the village, encouraging young mothers to do the same.” Amera recalls.

These activities have been implemented thanks to the generous support of the Big Heart Foundation, a humanitarian organization from United Arab Emirates (UAE), which contributes to UNICEF Yemen’s efforts to contain the cholera outbreak in affected communities and prevent the disease spread in “at risk” communities, improving the well-being of children in Yemen.