Village Health Works
Fighting Poverty with an Integrated Approach
Fast Facts
Burundi
Ken Inadomi
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Job Skills, Health
How Village Health Works (VHW) Is Making a Difference
VHW has worked since 2007 to mitigate poverty in Burundi, one of the world’s poorest and most neglected nations, using its holistic operating model to integrate health care, nutrition, food security, business and financial literacy education, and income-producing agriculture and craft cooperatives.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Deogratias Niyizonkiza is the subject of Tracy Kidder’s 2009 book Strength in What Remains.
Work of VHW
- Provides essential healthcare services to rural communities through a state-of-the-art medical facility and a network of community health workers.
- Operates a secondary-level boarding school to develop the next generation of future ethical leaders and entrepreneurs.
- Runs a health and life skills education program for adolescent girls and offers various teacher initiatives to improve the quality of education.
- Maintains demonstration gardens and a Model Farmer program for the development and continuous improvement of farming practices, and to provide for school feeding programs.
- Runs workshops to build capacity in communication, parenting and conflict resolution, including sessions that address teen pregnancy, self-esteem, co-parenting, child and domestic abuse, and healthy ways to resolve conflicts.
Initiatives Supported by Project Redwood
2012: $25,000 to establish 12 agricultural and 3 selling cooperatives of 20-30 families each.
2013: $25,000 to stabilize the 12 agricultural cooperatives established in 2012.
2014: $20,000 to expand demonstration gardens and livestock herds, provide nutritious food to pre-schoolers and fund 30 healthcare workers to monitor births.
2015: $25,000 to maintain and expand demonstration gardens and to provide nutritious food to pre-schoolers and clinic patients.