Health
Children have a right to healthcare.
Terre des hommes helps hundreds of thousands of children and their mothers to benefit from their right to healthcare, food and hygiene in a sustainable manner and within their communities. Tdh advises and assists mothers of malnourished children, pregnant women and mothers of newborn infants. Tdh ensures they are cared for in paediatric wards when necessary and also encourages breastfeeding. Tdh transfers children who cannot be treated in their own country to European University hospitals and organises surgical procedures in developing countries. During humanitarian crises, Tdh ensures access to drinking water and sanitary facilities and also improves hygiene in the affected communities.
-
Specialised care
-
Health and nutrition
-
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
-
Specialised healthcare and treatment
In around ten countries, Terre des hommes provides the poorest children with urgently needed specialised care. If they cannot be treated on-site, the children are sent to Europe (principally Switzerland) where they can receive the appropriate care. Every year, Tdh transfers around 200 children, most of them with heart problems, to European university hospitals. Tdh also trains staff and assists local healthcare systems. In addition, Tdh organises surgical procedures in project countries, whereby each year around 50 children are operated on and another two to three hundred examined.
Discover projects: -
-
Mother & child health and nutrition
Terre des hommes guarantees that several hundred thousand mothers and their children have the right to healthcare during pregnancy, birth, the postnatal period and childhood. The concrete aid that Tdh gives helps to increase the quality of the care and the willingness of communities to take responsibility for their own health. In its projects, Tdh carries out important support work with pregnant women to reduce the risks they run during pregnancy. Tdh gives them assistance with food and ensures that they have access to pre- and post-natal care. Tdh also encourages exclusive breastfeeding of newborns for the first six months and then the addition of adequate complementary food. Finally, Tdh supports specialised nutrition units, integrated in official hospital formats.
Discover projects: -
-
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
In humanitarian crises, Terre des homes installs systems for accessing drinking water (mobile treatment units, tanks, distribution)and communal latrines in villages and refugee camps in order to avoid the spread of epidemics. With its development projects, Tdh also makes a vital contribution to the promotion of hygiene and training in this area. As one example, young mothers are encouraged to only use boiled water to prepare their babies’ food. In order to provide access to drinking water and repair sanitation systems, Tdh organises the construction of wells, boreholes and networks for distributing drinking water as well as the installation of latrines and showers and the disposal of wastewater and refuse. At the same time, Tdh boosts the local capacities to guarantee the sustainable continuation of this work.
Discover projects: -
Headquarters
Terre des hommes
tdh.ch is printable