CHME Food and Water Security

Food and Water Security CHME

Community health and illness are closely linked to access to health food and clean water, and are now recognized as fundamental human rights issue. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed the right of everyone to adequate food. However, access to adequate food in the rural areas of many developing countries depends heavily on access to natural resources, including water, that are necessary to produce food. The UN General Assembly declared access to clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right on 28 July 2010 Notwithstanding little progress has been made throughout the developing world and within economically disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and other industrialized societies.

CHME Solution

  • Embracing the principle that “healthy food and clean water are medicine,” BHT is seeking funding for a pilot program to support two local Santa Barbara Initiatives—Farming for Life and Mil Familias—in collaboration with the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute.
  • The CHME provides:
    • Enhanced engagement and collaboration through the Visual Matching Engine (VME)
    • Educational programs on other major health challenges outside of the diabetes closely linked to healthy food and water, as well as best practices on social determinants of health such as communication and transportation challenges that may influence the success of these programs.
    • Incentives for both farmers and users to adapt positive behavioral changes and practices involving healthy food and water using Success Points and other game-like initiatives.
  • Scaling. Once the CHME is to demonstrated to measurably influence health outcomes in the Santa Barbara pilot study, the data will be shared with other communities in the U.S. and abroad (beginning with Mexico) confronting similar challenges.

References:

https://publichealthreviews.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40985-017-0056-5

http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/food_security.shtml

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/world/americas/mexico-coca-cola-diabetes.html