The era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) began in 2015. Health is well placed in the SDGs.
The health goal (SDG 3) is broad: ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. The
SDG declaration emphasizes that to achieve the overall health goal, ‘we must achieve universal health
coverage (UHC) and access to quality health care. No one must be left behind’. This places UHC at the
centre of the SDG 3 health goal and SDG 3 as a contributor to and beneficiary of sustainable development,
with linkages to all the other SDG targets. Achieving SDG 3 will depend on progress in other SDGs – e.g.,
poverty reduction; education; nutrition; gender equality; clean water and sanitation, sustainable energy and
safer cities).
The right to health should not be seen as a right to be healthy. The state cannot be expected to provide people
with protection against every possible cause of ill health or disability such as the adverse consequences of
genetic diseases, individual susceptibility and the exercise of free will by individuals who voluntarily take
unnecessary risks, including the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles. Nor should the right to health be seen as a
limitless right to receive medical care for any and every illness or disability that may be contracted. Instead,
the right to health should be understood as a right to the enjoyment of a variety of facilities and conditions
which the state is responsible for providing as being necessary for the attainment and maintenance of good
health.
Aparajeyo-Bangladesh’s Strategy:
In today’s globalized world, complexity, interdependence, cooperation, and conflict characterize both the nature
of many of the problems actors in all sectors face and of the solutions we together pursue. Linkages and shared
effort among International Donors, local NGOs, groups, and individuals are seen by us as the only effective way
to address broad and multifaceted problems that defy clear definition and have no simple solutions. Among the
current lexicon that distinguishes joint organizational arrangements to deal with these problems, the term
‘partnership’ figures prominently. We believe that Partnerships are embodied in the conception of governance as
including not just what governments/International Donors do but how all sectors of society interact together to
solve crucial problems and produce tangible results for the people we serve. Our organisation’ vision/concept is
that in development arena, partnership is both a core element in programs to improve the delivery of key goods
and services in poor and transitioning communities, and a frequently applied descriptor of the relationship
between external funders of those programs and the national/local organizations or groups in Bangladesh
involved in carrying them out. Partnerships and skills are not considered as a one-way process in our
organization; rather we believe and consider that partnerships bring like-minded organisations together with
multi-talented skills and values that give us the joint opportunity to create collaborations to jointly create a
society where vulnerable and marginalised groups can be empowered and treated as equals. Such collaborations
also focus on gender and sexual rights to permit us in moving towards the creation of a society of nonjudgemental,
empowered individuals who can be protected and prevented from all forms and discrimination.
Healthcare and Health Education: First aid support is provided to all children, youth and women across the
programmes. Preventive, curative and promotive health care services are provided through mobile medical team.
Complicated cases are referred to government hospitals or private/specialised clinics. Drugs are fed every three
months to remove intestinal helminthes to reduce diarrhoea, anaemia, malnutrition and related problems.
Growth monitoring of under-5 children as well as regular health check-ups of all children are practised across
the programme. Emergency issues are dealt with according to need. Food supplement are ensured in all
Aparajeyo’s centres in the form of free meals and special diets for sick beneficiaries in order to develop hygienic
food habit, maintain nutritional balance and improve their health status.
Source: Annual Report 2022