Working in collaboration with government and humanitarian organizations, Teck has provided life-saving zinc treatments to more than 44 million children in Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burkina Faso and India. Since 2011, Teck, the Government of Canada, Nutrition International and UNICEF Canada have worked together through the Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) to provide zinc and oral rehydration salts (ORS), a simple and cost-effective solution to diarrhea — the second leading cause of death of children around the world.
In 2017, Teck, the Government of Canada and Nutrition International launched a renewed ZACH partnership to reach millions more children with zinc treatments to help save lives in Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Bangladesh. The partnership will further increase access to zinc and ORS in rural communities and provide training to more than 60,000 community health workers.
“High impact partnerships such as ZACH, which brings together the expertise and resources of the not-for-profit, government and private sectors, are key to getting lifesaving interventions to those who need them most,” said Nutrition International President and CEO Joel Spicer.
Empowering Women in the Community
ZACH has also been a platform to empower women like Anees Fatima, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, India. Every day, Anees interacts with mothers and families to help them better understand the signs of diarrhea and dehydration, and how to simply and effectively treat it with zinc and ORS.
Anees is one of 17,000 community health workers trained in 2017 within the state of Uttar Pradesh through Teck’s partnership with UNICEF, under ZACH. Becoming a community health worker is a point of pride for the women and their families – they are now empowered to earn an income and help their communities be healthier.
Anees Fatima is proud of the work she does. “Working as a community mobilizer is incredible work. I help sick children be well again. Until the last day of my life, this is what I will do,” she says.
ZACH now serves as a model of how to create sustainable health partnerships, engage women and increase community participation, through health workers and volunteers. It also supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 3 on Good Health and Well Being and SDG 5 on Gender Equality, which aims to reduce preventable child deaths and increase gender equality.
To learn more about Teck’s Zinc & Health program, visit www.zincsaveslives.com
