IDRC-supported research showcased in WHO Foundation video series
On May 29, 2024, the Healthier Together video series was launched at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva. This series, produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions and presented by the WHO Foundation, explores health challenges and innovative solutions from across the globe. The focus is on transformational, equitable and replicable programs that contribute to the goal of health for all.
Two of the 30 projects, produced by BBC StoryWorks in all corners of the globe, present achievements, outcomes and reflections from IDRC-supported global health research.
In Togo, the Association Togolaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial (ATBEF) is addressing the rising number of teen pregnancies through a school- and community-based multisectoral approach (health, education and legal) to raise awareness among young people with a view to preventing early pregnancies and engaging in safe sexual behaviours. In a country where 17% of girls aged 15-19 years have already given birth, this program successfully reduced the teenage pregnancy rate in the Kara Region by 80% from 2018 to 2021. Its success has led to scaling the program out to 250 schools in 50 municipalities. In the video, Pauline Kouagou shares her experience of becoming pregnant at the age of 17, and then going through the ATBEF program and completing her studies. “If I do not continue my studies, I will become a burden to my parents and I would not know how to help them in the future,” said Kouagou, who aspires to become a midwife and contribute to her community.
In Guatemala, there were 30,000 new cases of Chagas disease reported in the 1980s. Transmitted by “kissing bugs,” Chagas is a disease that often affects poorer communities that have lower-quality housing.
“We need to have an integrated vision that acknowledges that the environment, trees, water and food are all connected to our health-environment relationship,” said Carlota Monroy, who shares an innovation she pioneered decades ago to use volcanic ash as plaster to shield homes from the insects carrying Chagas disease. The interconnected nature of human health, environment, food and water systems is at the core of the approach proposed by Monroy, a renowned biologist and entomologist. This experiment with new plaster, which began 19 years ago in the Guatemalan village of La Brea, has drastically reduced infestation rates from 42% to 2%. In the video, Isabel Contreras, a Chagas disease survivor, describes the changes she has witnessed in her lifetime resulting from the scaling up of adoption of this innovation in her community. The approach is now being further scaled in 50 rural communities across Guatemala and in similar rural communities in Central America.