Effectiveness of the census-based impact oriented approach

Abstract

In the rural highlands of Guatemala, a community health worker made a routine home visit and encountered a severely malnourished child who had been having repeated bouts of diarrhea and pneumonia. By providing education to the mother to improve the child’s nutritional status, by improving the hygienic situation in the home, and by providing appropriate antibiotic treatment for episodes of pneumonia, the child returned to good nutrition and health. Without this kind of outreach and support, this child would very likely have died. We have seen and heard about many similar cases in which health programs using the framework we will be describing in this chapter have been able to prevent deaths of children and save the lives of mothers with complications related to pregnancy.