How volunteers save children’s lives

When four-year-old Min Kyaw Naing, who lives at Tein-nyo camp for displaced people in Rakhine State, became seriously ill with diarrhoea, community health worker Daw U Khaing Htay was on hand to help.

After three days of oral rehydration salts and zinc, Min Kyaw Naing was back to normal.

But Daw U Khaing Htay continued to visit his home for a week, where he resides with his mother and elder sister, to monitor his condition daily.

Diarrhoea is a common and serious health problem for children aged 5 and under in Rakhine State, but volunteers like Daw U Khaing Htay have been trained to administer immediate, life-saving treatment and spare families from an expensive visit to a doctor.

With funding from the Government of Japan, UNICEF has partnered with the Myanmar Health Assistant Association (MHAA) to provide community-based maternal and child health services for vulnerable populations in camps and hard-to-reach areas in five townships in Rakhine State.

Daw U Khaing Htay and two other volunteers, who serve close to 3,000 people in the camp, have been trained on community case management (CCM) by MHAA together with more than 100 volunteers.

“Daw U Khaing Htay not only provided the necessary treatment but also advised us on how to prevent diarrhoea in future,” said Min Kyaw Naing’s mother. “She taught us how to clean children’s hands, prepare food hygienically and drink boiled water.”

“At first, many patients came to me only after they had spent a few days self-medicating with antibiotics they somehow got that is usually neither the right medication nor the correct dose,” said Daw U Khaing Htay. “But now most parents turn immediately to me and my two co-workers after seeing how well the children respond to our care.”

In 2022, UNICEF supported the treatment of at least 12,095 children aged 5 and under who had diarrhoea with oral rehydration salts and zinc in Rakhine State.