Keeping children like Alif healthy and in school

In the Yemeni city of Dhamar, first-grader Alif Aqabat washes her hands before lunch at the Asmaa School for Girls, a place of learning where for many years, lack of clean water meant many students avoided school.

Teachers like Afrah Al-Ashwal saw firsthand how this impacted the children. “We had lots of problems, especially students catching diseases,” she explained.

Mothers leading the way in Cameroon

Meanwhile, a half a world away, Tchinabi Thérèse explains basics of menstrual hygiene and pre-natal care to a group of young women, and some parents, in a village in Cameroon’s Far North region.

"In the past, many women did not understand the importance of vaccination, menstrual hygiene, or prenatal consultations,” says Thérèse, a mother of six who serves president of the Kodek mothers' club.

A survivor and a future teacher

Meanwhile, amid the vast expanse of bamboo huts in Cox’s Bazar Camp-11, Bangladesh, Mohammad Shahid is doing his best to live like any average teenager. He loves to play football, he goes to school and he has big dreams for the future.

“I want to be a teacher and educate people in my community when I grow up,“ he says.

But this young man’s dreams were almost cut short one terrifying day, when the relative peace of camp life was brutally interrupted by a roaring blaze that tore through their bamboo haven. Shahid remembers the roaring flames consuming the family home and the sounds of despair echoing through the camp.

The family was finally reunited, but the house that had protected them from rain, winds and heatwaves was gone, burnt to the ground along with some 2,000 other homes in the camp.
le, amid

Mothers keeping their communities healthy

In Cameroon’s Far North region, the partnership supported the Kodek’s mothers club, which is at the forefront of preventing unnecessary death and illness in communities with little health care access.

The mothers’ club works also with local parents to allow young girls to stay in school and they support a wide range of income-generating projects that provide women with their reliable sources of revenue.

The projects include a community farm that grows millet and cowpeas, a project in which members produce artisanal oils (sesame, balanites, moringa), a farm that raises sheep and many other initiatives.

Safer water and a healthier learning environment

At the Asmaa School for Girls, meanwhile, the partnership helped the Yemen Red Crescent to make much-needed renovations to improve water safety and hygiene.

New water taps were installed, and proper plumbing was put in place for the bathrooms.

The renovations were one of several initiatives by the Yemen Red Crescent Society, and supported by the Programmatic Partnership, to upgrade or install new clean water and sanitation services in communities where needs are most acute.

New shelters, new hope

And in case of the fire that took away Mohammed's home, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and the IFRC swiftly came to their aid.

"We provided them various support to build shelters," says Asmat Ullah, a volunteer with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society who himself comes from the displaced community in Cox’s Bazar.

On top of that, support from the Programmatic Partnership allowed the Red Crescent to construct hundreds of new shelters as well as improve early-warning systems throughout the sprawling camp complex that keep people safe from fires, storms and potential flooding, among other things.