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PO Box A524
Sydney South NSW 1235, Level 11, 227 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2024 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

Your impact
through health

Download Health Report

Thanks to your support, 5,756,229 community members are being reached with essential health and sanitation knowledge.

Latest Report: March 2020

With limited access to healthcare services, and a lack of basic sanitation knowledge, many preventable illnesses continue to prevail in developing countries.

Thanks to your support, Opportunity's program partners in India and Indonesia, and recently in Bangladesh, are empowering 4,559 women as health leaders. These women, having begun their journey as small loan recipients, elect to participate in basic health, hygiene and nutrition education which they share with community members.

The health leader solution helps families on their journey out of poverty with improved health education and access to better quality healthcare. Health leaders are currently reaching 5,756,229 community members with essential health and sanitation knowledge.

Learn how our health program works

4,559
women have been trained as health leaders in Asia
5,756,229
community members are being reached
with better health and sanitation knowledge
215
health leaders continue to earn income
through the Health Entrepreneur pilot program

Data to December 2019

India Health Impact Report, March 2020

Highlights

Education on health, hygiene and nutrition provided by the Community Health Leaders has been well-received, and community members have changed their behaviour, resulting in improved health and cleaner neighbourhoods. The digital literacy of the Health Leaders is improving through the program and some are now using the messaging application WhatsApp to receive health messages that are informed by Opportunity’s program partners.

The Health Leader training slowed slightly over the past six-months as more focus was placed on strengthening the Health Entrepreneur and Basic Care Provider pilots. 215 Health Leaders continue to earn income through the Health Entrepreneur pilot program, selling basic sanitation products such as soap, which support change in behaviour like handwashing that is needed to prevent illness in communities.

106 Health Leaders have been trained as Basic Care Providers, equipping them to provide basic emergency assistance.

Lessons

The key to sustained income generation through selling health-related products depends heavily on securing reliable supplies of those products that also need to be accessible and affordable for the health entrepreneurs. Buying stock up-front presents a big risk and barrier for the health entrepreneurs given their low savings and the delayed return on their investment. The pilot is continuing to explore product suppliers and community demand to develop a scaled and sustainable supply chain that helps these women earn health-related incomes.


Highlights

The program has expanded with 30 new Health Leaders in Indonesia beginning an initial six-month training program to equip them to deliver health education in local villages. This second cohort of Health Leaders will begin reaching additional community members in 2020. So far, the first cohort of Health Leaders in Indonesia has reached 162,479 community members with health and sanitation education.

Work has begun on digital data collection tools using tablets or phones to gather information on the people benefitting from the health program.

Lessons

Expansion of the program depends on the successful recruitment of staff to train the health leaders, drive scale, manage the program, build links with government bodies, and explore other partnerships, for example with health insurance and telehealth providers. 


Highlights

On the back of the success of the health program in India and Indonesia, Opportunity began a new partnership with a large microfinance institution (BURO) in Bangladesh to provide primary health care to women living in poverty. Offering financial services to more than 1.75 million women living in poverty in every district across Bangladesh, BURO is well placed to expand their offering with the addition of health education to improve the health and wellbeing of millions of families. 

The program was designed by BURO with health curriculum developed for the Bangladeshi context with the support of an expert with previous experience developing community health programs for the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

Using a train-the-trainer model, 180 staff at BURO were trained as Health Educators to, in turn, equip selected microfinance recipients to become Health Leaders. Health Leaders complete ongoing training with support and mentorship from the BURO Health Educators. In 2020, the women will begin providing health education to an average of 200 households each in their local communities.

Lessons

BURO has a long history of providing multi-layered solutions to the families it serves, through microfinance, health, education and other initiatives. The new health partnership will enable BURO to leverage some of its existing health initiatives—which include a hospital and telemedicine pilot—to provide more integrated health services to more clients. With the Health Leaders providing health, they can also build community support to use other health initiatives, such as diagnostic and referral services, and low-cost access to doctors. 

 Download report as PDF


This project is supported by the Australian Government through the 
Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

view previous reports

October 2019 Report

March 2019 Report

Impact Stories

Your support is empowering these women—and millions more like them—to build a healthier future their families.

"Prevention is better than cure." 
– Jessica Carter, Asia Health Program Director

How important is health? We asked Jessica a few questions about how healthcare is helping families leave poverty behind.

READ MORE

"It is important for the community to stay healthy to reduce medical issues."
Sumanthi Devi, Bihar

As a Community Health Leader, Sumanthi teaches the importance of good nutrition to women in her village. 

MEET SUMANTHI

"...as we started meeting regularly, it became like a family."
– Usha Devi, Uttar Pradesh

Usha is a BCP—a Basic Care Provider—not quite a paramedic or nurse, but more than a first aid responder. BCPs provide an essential health service to people living in rural India.

MEET USHA

The COVID-19 lockdown for 1.3 billion people in India posed a very different situation than lockdown in Australia. Jessica Carter, our Asia Health Program Director—based in Hyderabad, India—explains.

READ MORE

See more of your impact

View all Impact Reports