World Health Day
Established in 1950 by the Health Assembly, #WorldHealthDay is annually celebrated on the 7th April. The day’s aim is to bring attention to the millions of people who still have insufficient access to affordable or any health care services at all. This year’s theme is centred around Universal Health Coverage, which focuses on ensuring all people and communities have access to quality health services whenever they need them, without suffering financial hardship.
Currently, at least half of the world’s global population does not receive full coverage of essential health services. What the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognizes as Primary Health Care, isn’t limited to solely a doctor that can treat your current illness, but continual support and guidance throughout an individual’s lifetime.
All of the 194 UN states which make up the WHO, have committed to working closely with their national healthcare providers to ensure that everyone has access to the quality health services that they need, no matter where they reside. Huge disparities remain in access to health services across the countries in the WHO. Medicine and health care are expensive, which forces several millions of people each year into extreme poverty as a result of out-of-pocket spending on the medicines needed to stay alive and healthy.
Did you know?
• It is estimated around 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty (defined as living on 1.90 USD or less a day) because they have to pay for health care.
• Over 800 million people spent at least 10% of their household budgets to pay for health care.
Health is a human right and now is the time for states and health services to work together to achieve Universal Health Coverage. 🌏
• All UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
At drop4drop, our contribution to supporting Universal Health Coverage is not only through building/refurbishing clean sources of water for a community in need, but also through hygiene education programmes, practices and soap distribution carried out by drop4drop’s in-country partners post-project completion. These programmes provide information on basic nutrition and the benefits of drinking clean water. This subsequently works to reduce the likelihood of water-borne diseases and keep communities healthy.
To join our mission and find out more about our projects, visit our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @drop4drop or the ‘get involved’ section of our website https://drop4drop.org/get-involved/
#worldhealthday #universalhealthcoverage #cleanwaterforall