Developing economically viable strategies to enhance food security and local food production while conserving environment and natural resources.
Community Health, Reproductive Health and Nutrition:
Somalia’s children face some of the world’s worst survival conditions. Unresolved ethnic divisions, weak or non-existent administration and prevailing poverty severely limit access to basic health care, safe water and primary education. More than 20 per cent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and the lack of access to health services as well as ongoing displacement due to conflict and drought make control of preventable diseases problematic. Only 29 per cent of the population have access to safe water sources and 51 per cent to improved means of excreta disposal – in these conditions cholera and diarrheal diseases are endemic. Infant mortality is estimated at 133 deaths per 1,000 live births. Less than 30 per cent of children attend primary school. Vulnerable groups and the displaced face increased risks of violence and exploitation. Although HIV prevalence rate remains below the 1 per cent threshold, the pandemic could rapidly spread if this threshold is breached. Organizing and training community health workers and nursing aides will help improve community’s overall capacity for health care and public health related matters since the trained members will provide simple health care services and disease control measures such as health education, disease prevention, as well as community health environment, nutrition projects to their respective communities, towns and villages. HARUN aims to provide essential medical supplies for health posts and maternal and child health centers; provide fixed, community outreach and referral for immunization services in order to strengthen routine immunization and improve the knowledge, awareness and utilization; combine social mobilization campaign with capacity-strengthening and supervision of health care providers in order to contain/reverse the current outbreaks of infectious diseases;; support mobile health teams in displaced communities; provide mother and child health services, including feeding centers, micronutrient supplementation and antenatal care; disseminate health messages and healthy mothers and babies campaigns ; support local, regional institutions to develop emergency response capacity for disasters.
Water, Environmental Health and Hygienic Sanitation Facilities
According to the UN, less than 16% of Somalis have access to improved sanitation facilities particularly those displaced or at increased risk of displacement due to drought and conflict. This is a massive problem for public health, as human waste causes disease and ill health. HARUN will build, rehabilitate/protect water sources such as WELLS; provide basic sanitation and hygiene services; chlorinate water points in cholera-prone areas; provide water storage, trucking procurement services.