Originally posted on Devex [7].

“If you want to go fast, go alone,” says an African proverb. “If you want to go far, go together.”

It’s been thirteen years since the international community adopted the Millennium Development Goals, an ambitious, self-imposed “report card” for global development that helped focus attention and resources on issues like HIV and AIDS. Since then, the global HIV response has gone fast. In 2002, just 300,000 people with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy in developing countries; today, UNAIDS [8] reports, treatment reaches nearly 10 million [9].

In 2005, "Chima" abandoned "Sinachi" and their four children to marry another woman. Heartbroken and unemployed, Sinachi returned to her home village and became a farmer. Although she worked hard, Sinachi’s children often went hungry and did not attend school for three years because she was unable to pay the fees.

Fortunately, in May 2012, the PEPFAR [14]-funded, USAID [15] project, Community-Based Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children [16] (CUBS) in Nigeria held an event in Sinachi’s village to raise HIV awareness and enroll vulnerable children in support programs. When Sinachi attended the event and explained her situation to the CUBS staff, they immediately referred her to the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

The Ministry’s commissioner helped Sinachi advocate for support from Chima by meeting with him to discuss the children’s needs and his responsibilities. Swayed by the authority of the commissioner, Chima now pays his children’s schools fees and calls them frequently to inquire about their well-being. Recently, Chima also gave Sinachi money to rent a better home and start a small business.

World Health Worker Week [21] (#WHWW" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WHWW&src=hash" target="_blank">#WHWW [22]) is April 8-12, 2013. Let's show the world just how much [23]#HealthWorkersCount [24]. Watch and share the video, thank a health worker, and donate $10 [25] in honor of a health worker. 

"We realized that educating the community was something we had to focus on," says Madina, a trained Afghan midwife, as she describes involving elders and religious leaders in helping to improve access to family planning and perinatal care for women in Khost province, including one woman who came to the health facility suffering complications from a home birth.

Health workers save lives. What will you do to thank a health worker?

Tuberculosis (TB) control in Ghana is challenging: detection of TB cases is low, and TB mortality rates high. In many communities, like Lower Manya Krobo District, these challenges are compounded by the popular belief that TB is a spiritual disease. Many Ghanaians who contract TB seek healing in prayer camps and shrines, rather than going to health facilities for testing and treatment. By the time these patients seek medical care, it often is too late to recover and avert death.

Lower Manya Krobo District has over 93,000 residents, and a high incidence of TB (209 cases per 100,000 people in 2011). The district is also home to many of the nation’s mushrooming prayer camps, where local healers provide daily services for ill residents. There are 50 prayer camps in Lower Manya Krobo District---and only 18 health facilities.

Grace Tsawe owns a prayer camp in this district, and she usually sees over 100 patients on her main clinic day.

Moen Kas, a hilly remote Afghan village absent of latrines or even a functioning water well, became an Open Defecation-Free (ODF) community within 24 days of arduous commitment from its leaders and people.

Moen Kas’ remarkable milestone makes it the first village in Afghanistan to reach ODF status in less than one month--inspired entirely from personal stories that are spreading across the country regarding the benefits of living in ODF communities.

The quick transformation was the direct result of a man from Moen Kas who had attended an ODF certification ceremony in the nearby, yet secluded, village of Ghalani.

As he watched the ceremony and learned of ODF’s benefits, he asked to speak on behalf of his village. During his speech, he praised Ghalani’s achievements within the past two months and publicly vowed that his own village would achieve ODF status in under a month.

Recognizing that this ambitious goal could not be achieved through him alone, he urged the other Moen Kas’ villagers who were also present at the ceremony to stand with him and work together.

So determined was the man in his vision to transform his village, that he invited the audience to visit Moen Kas in one week to verify it as an ODF community.

In January 2011, Amelia and her partner, Luke --- both HIV positive --- began accessing HIV care and support services at the Agape Network through its community home and palliative care program.

Agape Network is one of the NGOs that receives technical support from the PEPFAR [14]-funded, USAID [36]-implemented, Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention Project (GHARP II) [37], led by MSH.

When the Agape staff first met Luke and Amelia, they were living with their two daughters at Luke’s family’s home. The situation was tense because Luke’s relatives did not approve of his relationship with Amelia.

Finally, in December 2011, the tension escalated and Luke, Amelia, and their family were thrown out of the house.

Cross-posted on USAID's IMPACT blog [40]

My most vivid early childhood memory is waking up to excruciating pain in my throat, and seeing the goldfish swimming in the aquarium of the pediatric surgical ward. Although penicillin had been discovered 30 years earlier, doctors had not learned yet that treating "strep throats” with penicillin was better than operating. I didn't need the tonsillectomy. But, I was lucky to receive quality care in a health facility, close to my home.

Millions of children today are not so lucky. Over 7 million children under the age of 5 die each year; 70 percent of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. The vast majority -- over two-thirds -- are entirely avoidable with existing safe, effective, low-cost prevention and treatment.

Early one morning Mrs. Fred woke up and found a boy outside her house. Alarmed and curious, she asked him why he was there. Godgift, as he identified himself, told her that the continuous appearance of a snake where he lived forced him to abandon the place he called home, after numerous futile attempts to frighten it off with pepper. Highly disturbed, she arranged for him to eat in a nearby restaurant whenever he showed up by her house.

The boy, Godgift Henshaw, is 13 years old. Godgift's mother took him along when she left her husband and eloped with another man. When the burden of care got too heavy, she left Godgift with her mother in Agbia community, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Godgift’s grandmother beat and neglected him. Most of the time he went without food and often slept outside the house. Finally, she labeled him a wizard and abandoned him, fleeing from their home.

The landlord evicted Godgift when there was no one to pay the rent. He took refuge in an uncompleted building in a nearby bush, completely at the mercy of the elements. Abandoned and stigmatized (following his identification as a wizard), he fed himself by doing odd jobs.

"Leading a community to become healthy is not just a male thing," says Águida Curo Vican, president of the Local Development Committee of Tutumbaru in Peru’s Ayacucho region.

As Haitians continue to struggle against many obstacles in improving and developing their country, cholera and sanitation remain challenges to many development efforts.

Since the cholera epidemic started in October [51], there have been a total of 252,640 confirmed cases. MSH integrated its response, where appropriate, with the national response that was coordinated by the Ministry of Health. Following the earthquake, MSH’s USAID-funded Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haíïti (SDSH) [52] Project found that provision of basic health care through mobile kiosks in the settlement camp tents were an effective way to provide services and messages. Educational messages and oral rehydration solution (ORS) therapy are now being delivered via these kiosks. In addition, SDSH distributed cots, buckets, bleach, bottled water, and ORS to combat the disease.