Why

Ensure healthier lives for women and children under 5 by improving access to safe, clean water and promoting hygienic sanitation practices.

What

Families in impoverished Côtes-de-Fer face many challenges. Most live far from health facilities and have limited access to care. To collect safe water, some women and children walk two hours. More than half of all households lack latrines, and with 38% of women never having completed primary school, economic options to lift families out of poverty are limited.

Serving these communities is CMMB’s signature initiative, Children and Mothers Partnerships (CHAMPS). CHAMPS Haiti connects people in Côtes-de-Fer with health and development support that saves lives and builds community resilience. The program’s 42 agents de santé communautaire polyvalents (ASCPs)—Haiti’s community health workers—reach between 8,000 and 8,500 families at home with health promotion and basic care.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

ASCPs teach families the importance of drinking clean and safe water, practicing hand hygiene, and using toilets to reduce waterborne disease. CMMB Haiti also distributes water treatment products, builds and repairs wells, installs handwashing stations, and constructs latrines—and one community mutuelle de solidarité (MuSo), a community-based savings group, is pooling funds so that every family can build one.

Following the cholera resurgence, CMMB convened community meetings to help families understand how to prevent infection. We also intensified distribution of water treatment products and trained households on how to use them effectively.