Cause: Health & Nutrition
What does this look like in the field?
Clinics, both onsite and mobile, provide care to children and families within the community. The church and community identifies their needs, which could be general health care, eye care, dental services, minor surgery, preventative training, etc. Local health care professionals operate onsite clinics, while visiting health care teams come alongside to assist with the work or provide specialty services.
Schools are an avenue to provide basic health care and nutrition to many children in the community! Lifeline field staff and educators identify the needs that our schools could assist with and then develop and implement a plan. Students in Lifeline schools may receive yearly physicals either from our clinic or a visiting health care team, dental care, nutritious school lunches, and education about health-related topics (like how to correctly brush your teeth or wash your hands). The entire community benefits when health care and nutrition are addressed in schools!
Malnutrition, undernutrition, and food insecurity are very real issues for families around the world. This could be an ongoing situation due to the local economy or political instability or a short-term problem due to a natural disaster. In either situation, Lifeline comes alongside local leaders/ministries who are serving in the community to distribute healthy foods and vital nutrients to infants, children, and families.
Throughout all of this, preventative training and education is essential!
Community health dramatically increases when awareness and education equip individuals, families, and children to take control of their health. It can be as simple as learning about healthy foods, how to brush your teeth, or how to wash your hands, to wider community impacts on the importance of clean water and malaria prevention.
Medical Gift-in-Kind donations update: Lifeline no longer accepts medical donations. All medical donations should be sent to FAME with which Lifeline has a partnership. If you have questions, please contact us at healthcare@lifeline.org or 614-794-0108.