Minmetals Resources Limited 2011 Sustainability Report (PDF)

CASE STUDY: Sepon Mother and Child Health ProjectPartnering with the Burnet Institute and theVilabouly District Health Office, Sepon hasrecognised the importance of the health ofwomen and children in the district with theMaternal and Child Health Project.The goals of the Mother and Child Health Project,which covered 12 focus villages (16 outreach sites)surrounding Vilabouly town, were to:» Extend the capacity of Vilabouly District healthpersonnel to plan, manage and review primaryhealth care interventions for women and children;» Improve the health-related practices of women inthe target area during pregnancy and in the earlymonths of their baby’s life; and» Improve the nutritional status of children underfive years in the target area.Country Program Manager for the Burnet Institute inLaos Dr Niramonh Chanlivong shares her thoughts:“The Burnet Institute is a public health NGO that hasbeen working in Laos for over a decade now. We focuson the development and delivery of responses tocommunity health needs. In practice, this usually meansworking with government partners and communities.In 2007, we added private industry to the mix whenwe started to engage with Sepon mine. This, we found,was a whole new ball game!“Initially we were hired to ‘enhance the ability of themine’s employees and young people living in Vilaboulydistrict to protect themselves from HIV and othersexually transmitted infections’. As a result of thissuccessful cooperation, in 2008 the mine asked Burnetto start a new intervention, this time promoting thehealth and nutrition of women and children livingaround the mine. This project has been much easierto navigate, and we have appreciated the fact that thecompany has given us the freedom to implement as wesee fit, applying our technical experience in this area.“As we approach the end of the third year of thisinitiative, we have started to see some very tangibleresults: greater capacity of district health staff; morevillagers attending outreach activities; more childrengetting vaccinated; and more women breastfeeding.There are still times when the differing perspectivesof a private company and a development organisationcreate challenges – for example public health programsdon’t measure ‘outputs’ in quite the same way asindustry, and behaviour change doesn’t happenovernight – but the company’s recruitment ofprofessional community development staff in recentyears has helped to ease this.“Overall, we are proud of what we have been able toachieve at the community level in Vilabouly, in bothour HIV and mother and child health projects, and wedon’t forget that these achievements are all thanks toSepon mine – for its financial support, of course, butmore importantly for the company’s commitment tosharing the benefits of the mine with the communitiesthat surround it.”Recording the weight and height of infants so thattheir development can be recorded and compared.46