Lao Ministry of Health and Thrive Networks Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Improve WASH Access
May 27, 2016
In a unified effort to advance safer sanitation and hygiene practices in Lao PDR, the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Environmental Health and Water Supply (Nam Saat) and Thrive Networks— known as East Meets West Foundation (EMW) in Asia— came together on May 27, 2016 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that solidifies their partnership.
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Thrive Networks Vietnam Country Leader an Invited Guest at Obama Address
May 24, 2016
Ms. Loan Duong, the Vietnam Country Director of Thrive Networks, known as East Meets West Foundation in Asia, was an invited guest at President Obama’s speech to Vietnamese leaders at the National Convention Center in Hanoi on Tuesday, May 24th.
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Baby, It’s Cold Outside
May 22, 2016
John Zip Lehnus, a writer in San Francisco, recently spoke with Sarah Chynoweth, Vice President of Health, and Alejandra Villalobos, Chief Development and Communications Officer, about Thrive’s Newborn Health Program. This post was originally published on Medium.
Most babies come into the world well equipped to cope with their new setting. Their lungs are primed to start breathing air, and to cry loudly. They wear a thick padding of baby fat to insulate against the relatively Arctic conditions outside the womb….
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Business as Unusual? Women Deliver 2016 Conference
May 17, 2016
“This is business as unusual,” announced Women Deliver CEO Katja Iversen during the opening ceremony of the largest gathering on women and girls’ health and rights in more than a decade, the Women Deliver 2016 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Jeff Albert, Vice President of Thrive Water, delivers research talk at WASH Futures 2016 Conference in Brisbane, Australia
May 15, 2016
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practitioners and professionals from around the world are convening in Brisbane, Australia for the WASH Futures 2016 Conference hosted by the International WaterCentre in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian WASH Reference Group. Themed “WASH Futures: Pathways to universal and sustained water, sanitation and hygiene”, the conference is exploring the cross-cutting issues of private sector participation in WASH, equity and WASH in the pacific.
ReadNeonatal Jaundice in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Lessons and Future Directions from the 2015 Don Ostrow Trieste Yellow Retreat
May 14, 2016
Severe neonatal Jaundice in premature and term babies brings a higher risk of permanent neurological damage or death. Jaundice should be promptly diagnosed and treated, but, in particular in low resource countries, this problem is often underestimated.
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Mass School-based Deworming and Hygiene Improvement Program Under Way in Vietnam
May 10, 2016
On April 28 and 29, 2016, approximately 471,000 schoolchildren across three Vietnamese provinces were administered with a safe, effective, and extremely low-cost medication to cure infection by intestinal parasitic worms. A week later, another 258,000 students from a fourth province were treated, amounting to a total of nearly 730,000 children, which equates to every school-aged child within these four provinces.
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How much would you pay to have your own toilet: One day’s salary? One week? One month?
April 1, 2016
Dr. Piers Clark, Chairman of Isle Utilities, a specialist water consultancy business, recently visited Thrive’s Water and Sanitation Program in Vietnam. This post was originally published on Dr. Clark’s blog, Notes from Piers.
In Vietnam the price to have a simple, basic sanitation system installed in your home is around $300. For much of the rural population the average salary is less than $1/day. The maths just doesn’t work. Who would spend a year’s salary on a toilet? The health and hygiene benefits associated with good sanitation are well documented, but aid programmes that have given latrines away have tended to fail spectacularly. Aside from being prohibitively expense, the latrines fall into disrepair or are not used. For a sanitation programme to be effective it needs local buy-in.
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On the Front Lines of Newborn Care
January 26, 2016
Meet Evangeline Garcia, a nurse at Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in the Philippines. It’s been called the “world’s busiest hospital,” but treating newborns got a lot easier after the Thrive Networks Newborn Health Program started there in 2012. Read about the changes Nurse Garcia saw, and her crucial role in helping train her fellow nurses.
Coach for College Builds Confidence
November 18, 2015
Nguyen Ngoc Van Tuong, or just Tuong, comes from a large farming family in Hoa An Commune in southern Vietnam. Tuong’s family is poor, and his childhood was far from easy. But that didn’t stop Tuong from pursuing his education. Now in his second year studying accounting at Can Tho University, Tuong credits his success to a pivotal experience he had as a young teenager: playing sports with and learning from US college athletes through Thrive Networks’ Coach for College program.
The Healing Light of the Firefly
November 17, 2015
Just three days after giving birth, Doan Thi Thu’s son Khanh was diagnosed with infant jaundice. When the standard treatment did not work, doctors transferred Khanh to Saint Paul Hospital in Hanoi where, thanks to Thrive Networks’ Newborn Health Program, the hospital has reliable medical equipment. Khanh was placed in the Firefly–an intensive phototherapy device provided by the program–and was cured.
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Sanitation Takes the Cake
November 6, 2015
Proper sanitation is a basic necessity, one of the keys to better health and productivity. But for many people living in rural areas of Cambodia, a hygienic toilet is an unaffordable luxury. Thrive Networks helped change all that for Chhe Hov, an elderly widow who makes a meager living selling Ansorm cakes. Chhe saved up her earnings and the CHOBA program gave this determined woman access to financing and a cash rebate for something many don’t think twice about: a household toilet.
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Case Study: Microloans for Sanitation
September 2, 2014
Using the microfinancing tools provided by the internationally renowned non-profit, Kiva, has allowed Thrive Networks to scale up its program to provide alternative financing and better monitoring and evaluation tools to households in Vietnam and Cambodia for new latrines. This funding is aligned alongside an awareness campaign and incorporates community involvement to create a more substantial impact through this innovative business partnership.
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Case Study: MTTS: Business for Social Benefit
September 2, 2014
The success of the Firefly technology is an example of what can be achieved through cross-sectoral cooperation. This specially designed medical device exemplifies the impact that is possible when various actors share knowledge, best practices, and expertise. The partnership of Thrive Networks with MTTS merges the nonprofit world with the for-profit world to create the best world for all.
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