Health and Nutrition

China has made significant progress in improving child health, as evidenced by the great reduction in under-five child mortality since 2000. According to the "Report on the Development of Maternal and Child Health in China (2019)" issued by the National Health Commission, the mortality rate of children under-five in China has decreased from 61‰ in 1991 to 8.4 ‰ in 2018. 

However, there are still 181,500 children under-five who die from preventable infectious diseases (including pneumonia and diarrhea) and injuries every year (Child Mortality Levels and Trends Report 2015). Development in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is key to preventing these deaths from happening. World Vision aims to reduce the mortality rate of children under-five and pregnant mothers, as well as children and adolescents dying from unintentional injuries in the program areas that we operates in, so that more children can reach their full potential and live life to the fullness.

Our Goal: To improve the protection of children under-five from infections, diseases and from being undernourished, to also improve the protection of children aged zero to 18 years old from fatal injuries, so as to contribute to the overall goal of reducing under-five mortality, maternal mortality and fatal injuries among children and adolescent in the places where World Vision works in China. Improve the knowledge of mothers and primary caregivers of children under-two about infant and young child feeding.

1. Improve the quality of care, and prevent common childhood diseases or infections for children under-five.
2. Improve maternal health care of women (especially in antenatal care and childbirth delivery skills).
3. Improve the protection of children aged zero to 18 from injuries (especially from road traffic injuries, falls and drowning).

Our Approach

To promote the health and wellbeing of children, World Vision uses an Ecological Model with three levels: children and families, community, health system and governance, to provide "360 degree support" to the most vulnerable children and their families. 

Change key behaviors of children and their caregivers (families): World Vision has developed a set of behavioral change communication material to nurture change in traditional norms and practices of mothers, caregivers and community members. The communication material addresses topics such as child nutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea, toilet usage, health and unintentional injuries. World Vision also equips Timed and Targeted Counselling (TTC) toolkits for Village Committees and volunteers to do home visits and support mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants for the first six months after birth. 

Increase community's access to healthcare, injury prevention and WASH services: World Vision supports communities in poor rural areas by strengthening their capacity to reduce environmental hazards, and to also be better guardians so as to reduce child injuries from happening.  

Strengthen the capacity of the health system to respond to health care needs, have stronger links with communities, and effectively implement public education and policies.
World Vision works closely with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide technical support to local health systems and to improve environmental hygiene. We also support policy research of local health systems and academia in the areas of WASH and child injuries, by developing evidence-based interventions and effective ways to implement policies. 

In 2020, World Vision's Health & WASH projects impacted the lives of 36,000 people.

• Nutrition for children: Promoted exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding in rural communities to mothers and caregivers of children under-two, benefiting 2,951 people.
• Child injury prevention: Increased community’s understanding about child injuries such as road traffic injuries, drowning and falls, benefiting 3,413 people.
• Improved drinking water systems and access to clean drinking water in households and schools，benefiting 4,720 people.
• Built sanitation facilities with safe drainage systems for households, benefiting 1,372 people.
• Built sanitation facilities and bathrooms in schools, benefiting 2,132 people.