Ensuring access to food security, health, water, sanitation and hygiene through FXBVillage programs

Program start 1991
Impacted population 105,000

FXBVillage programs promote access to the basic human rights of food security, health, water, sanitation and hygiene.

These programs are underway in Burundi, Namibia, Rwanda, Mongolia and Myanmar.

Context

One in 9 people in the world are undernourished, and food insecurity leads to stunted growth in millions of children. Three out of 10 people do not have access to safely managed drinking water services, and six out of 10 people do not have access to safely managed sanitation facilities. At least 892 million people continue to practice open defecation. Each year, more than five million children die before their fifth birthday. Many regions currently face serious health risks, including high maternal and neonatal mortality rates, the spread of infectious and non-communicable diseases, and poor reproductive health. Thirty-eight million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS.

The COVID-19 crisis is increasing extreme poverty in the most fragile countries and risks wiping out decades of development efforts.

Our action

Our economic and community development program FXBVillage enables us to provide a comprehensive response by simultaneously addressing all the factors that underlie poverty through five areas: nutrition, health, education, healthy housing and environment, and economic strengthening.

These programs are underway in Burundi, Namibia, Rwanda, Mongolia and Myanmar.

Nutrition: ensuring food security and eradicating child malnutrition 

  • Emergency nutritional support is given to families during the first nine months of the program to help them regain a satisfactory state of health.
  • Creation of individual vegetable gardens for the production of fruit and vegetables for the families’ own consumption.
  • Care of malnourished children under 5 years of age.
  • Training sessions for a healthy and balanced diet.

Health: promoting access to health care and preventing diseases

  • Registration of families in a centre so that they can benefit from adequate health care.
  • Training in general health management, sexual and reproductive health, and the prevention of endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, including by facilitating screening.
  • Psychosocial support to help families deal with the consequences of poverty and the various forms of violence encountered.

 

Water, sanitation and hygiene: improving living conditions

  • Equipping dwellings with improved cooking stoves, solar lamps, latrines, showers, and hand-washing stations.
  • Training in water treatment, recycling, personal and family hygiene and sanitation (WASH).

FXB provides ongoing coaching and mentoring throughout the three years of an FXBVillage program to ensure that participants develop the confidence and empowerment and acquire the economic and social skills necessary to successfully move out of extreme poverty.

Learn more about the VillageFXB Community and Economic Development Program. 

Program impact

200 economic and community development programs FXBVillage have been developed around the world, lifting more than 105,000 people out of extreme poverty.

The results of numerous internal and external evaluations conclude that FXBVillage programs have led to marked improvements in economic security, health and nutritional status, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, psychosocial well-being and children’s school participation.

Testimonial

The government is educating people to wash their hands to protect themselves from the coronavirus when, for us, it is already part of our daily lives.

Marie