What do we mean by essentials?

Poverty and environmental factors have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as root causes of a significant burden of death, disease and disability in many parts of the world. These elements include hazards in the home or the community more generally.

Poor health in many of the places where we work can be attributed to a relatively few key areas of risk. They include: poor water quality, or water availability; poor nutrition; vector borne diseases (such as malaria) and lack of health education.

As such, our work in-country focuses on these key areas in order to make the largest proportional difference to the health and wellbeing of the communities we act alongside. No one part of the ‘Essentials’ for health identified here is a single solution. On the most basic level, these are the building blocks for good health and support our belief in a holistic answer to poverty and ill health.