Health Care on the Go for Namibia’s Nomads

One of the big innovations of the new Sustainable Development Goals is that they seek to totally eliminate (as opposed to simply “reduce”) preventable child deaths, hunger, and other symptoms of extreme poverty. The big implication of these so-called “zero targets” are that interventions to combat extreme poverty and disease must reach everyone, everywhere.

Historically, the hardest to reach populations living in extreme poverty are rural subsistence farmers. Over the years, local governments, NGOs and the international community have invested heavily in delivering basic health care to rural villages. For example, innovations like “health extension workers,” which are usually local women that receive health care training, have helped to improve the health and welfare of rural communities.

This video from UNICEF shows how health extension workers reach the hardest of the hardest to reach populations: nomadic peoples.

If people like the Ovahimba tribe in Namibia can get decent health care, then the Sustainable Development Goals stand a good chance of reaching their ultimate targets.