Ethos of i4life
i4Life is a charity registered in Ireland, compliant with regulatory bodies such as the Charity Regulatory Authority, Company Regulation and Comlamh. i4Life was founded in 2009 by like minded volunteer health professionals who came together in order to establish a sustainable partnership with our health professional colleagues in the Global South. Our primary focus is the child Under 5 and our main objective of our organisation’s constitution is to achieve a sustainable and healthy future for children by reducing disease and malnutrition in low-resource countries by providing educational expertise through the deployment of international and local child health specialist teams in cooperation with local communities and organisations. We provide support, training and volunteers to existing charities in both development and emergency situations, with programmes in Zambia, and provision of expertise to existing organisations in Liberia and Uganda. This cascade model of education and mentorship has enabled mutual learning and participation between international health professionals and has benefited health systems both in the Global South and North. In particular Zambia, Liberia, Uganda and Ireland.
The i4Life nutrition clinic at Neri Clinic provides services to over 280 children under five on an annual basis. Over the past six years i4Life has become an established nutrition partner of the Chilanga District Health Management Team (CDHMT). Nutrition services are provided as per the Zambian nutrition protocols and in conjunction with the CDHMT. This approach 6 has fostered a strong working relationship between i4Life and local authorities and institutions. The i4life nutrition clinic now provides three of the four components of the Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) approach, including community outreach and mobilisation, outpatient therapeutic feeding programme and supplementary feeding programme. As well as providing integrated nutrition services at the Neri clinic, the i4life outreach tent is positioned on a rotational basis weekly throughout Linda and Mt Makulu zones offering satellite services. Outreach efforts have historically focused on malnutrition screening, detection and referral, however delivering Maternal and Infant, Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) education forms a component of outreach objectives. Nutrition services are provided three days per week. In these zones MUAC data reveals prevalence rates of 1.1% Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and 7.5% Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) in children under five years of age. To date the outpatient therapeutic programme and supplementary feeding programmes are achieving SPHERE standards with 85% cured, 14% defaulted and 1% deaths respectivelyReasons for malnutrition are lack of appropriate food , food insecurity, poverty, lack of access to health services/ disease, lack of sanitation and hygiene (diarrhoea).Evidence has shown that food security and nutrition suffer during pandemics and COVID-19 is particularly unique due to loss of man-hours, disruption of food environments and systems (lockdowns, closure of borders) (United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition, 2020).
Mutual Transfer of Knowledge between Global South and North Our primary long-term project is our nutrition cascade model in Lusaka, Zambia, which provides an acknowledged centre of best practice nutrition clinics at two PCCC sites, Neri Clinic at Linda and Kazimva Clinic with the Ministry of Health. i4Life has sustainable and valued partnerships with local stakeholders such as the Neri clinics, University of Zambia (UNZA), Ministry of Health (MoH), Irish Aid (IA), USAID and University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and provides extensive training and support to community health workers. Since 2018 UNZA Dietetic students gain their Community Clinical Skills at the i4Life Nutrition clinic. This is the first community placement of its kind in Zambia. We work only with partners who share our focus on human rights and child safeguarding. These programmes have been hugely successful and will continue for many years to come, reaching the most vulnerable. In order to further develop and sustain this mutual transfer of knowledge between health professionals from the Global South and North and to further realise i4lifes potential as an innovative organisation I4lifes requires capacity to build and employ a business administrative person in its Headford office in Ireland. While the CEO and i4life board acknowledges the uniqueness and commitment of i4lifes volunteers, we do recognise that for sustainability the organisation needs capacity to build and does require funding and support to accomplish this objective.
January 2023 I4life and Ministry of Health Chilanga Partnership with takeover of Neri Clinics financial and clinical governance take over of Neri Clinics
Neri clinic is a Primary Health Care facility situated in Linda Compound registered with the Health Practitioners Council of Zambia under licence no. 0231 which is now governed by i4Life financially and clinically by i4Life in partnership with the Ministry of Health Zambia . Since 2009, Neri clinics operate a Primary Health Care Clinic in Linda Township. Neri clinics have over 20,000 patient consultations per year utilising a range of services including the general clinic, HIV testing and the under-fives clinic. Neri clinic has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Zambian Ministry of Health (MoH) and receives essential medicines from the MoH supply chain. Neri clinic recognised the need for integrated curative and preventative nutrition services. Based on this observed need Neri and i4Life formed a partnership to provide nutrition services to Linda compound since 2012. The nutrition services were established, managed and operated by i4Life. However after many years of providing an excellent service to Linda Community the clinical and financial governance of the Neri Clinic was transferred over to i4life.
Safeguarding Policy
i4Life - Mission Statement
“ to achieve a sustainable and healthy future for children by reducing disease and malnutrition in low-resource countries by providing educational expertise through the deployment of international and local child health specialist teams in co-operation with local communities and organisations”.
i4Life -Vision
Development of education and educative cascade model of expertise and mentorship between Global North and South
The i4life community cascade model focuses on the deployment and skills enhancement of nutrition practitioners and Community Health Workers (CHWs). The i4life community cascade model is an educative model that cascades nutrition education and mentorship in a multi-sectoral way, offering bi-lateral learning possibilities and working with key stakeholders to respond to nutrition programming, whilst aligning with the goals and overarching mission of the Zambian CH Strategy 2019-2021 ‘To provide equitable access to integrated, cost-effective and quality community health services as close to the family as possible. The model is underpinned by:
- Government of Republic of Zambia (GRZ) and Ministry of Health (MoH) ownership and support
- Monitoring and evaluation systems developed to support iterative program improvement.
- Evaluation and documentation of the program as a best practice model
- CHWs for Nutrition placed at public and private supported facilities
- Expansion of the mentorship model into target facilities within Chilanga catchment to respond to vulnerable communities with surging Moderate Acute malnutrition and Severe Acute Malnutrition MAM/SAM caseloads
- Expansion of the i4life mentorship model into the provision of Primary Health Care to marginalised communities in Linda Compound
i4lifes focus is on sustainability, building the skill set of CHWs and existing PCCC staff, ensuring that correctly placed, qualified and experienced community health workers (supported through ongoing mentorship) can have an effective impact, contributing to the achievement of the legacy goals by improving access to health services at community level.”.
i4Life -Values
The i4Life Board, personnel, volunteers and partners are committed to adhering to our established values, which we believe compliments and enshrines our Mission and Vision.
It’s imperative that everyone we work with shares our values and implements them in every aspect of their work, wherever or whatever it may be. Our values remind us daily of why the organization was established and why we continue to do what we do. Each of our values compliments and supports each other, therefore ensuring they can be met and maintained.
These values serve to remind us why we do what we do, but also to ensure that we remain loyal to the human rights and dignity of others by being sensitive and aware of the needs of those who we aim to assist.
Together we aspire to, and achieve our mission, aims and objectives through our values.