​For the more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar sheltering in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the simple act of cooking a meal lies at the heart of a complex web of health, safety, nutrition and environmental concerns. Community Partners International (CPI) is launching a project to bring improved cookstoves into refugee households in Cox’s Bazar to help reduce firewood consumption that drives environmental degradation and deforestation, and support efforts to decrease levels of indoor air pollution that can negatively impact people’s health.

​Back in April, 2018, Community Partners International (CPI) began training a network of Rohingya Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) embedded in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to provide first response services to their communities. Since then, the CHVs have responded to 75 requests for urgent assistance.

​As part of an ongoing series of forums throughout Myanmar to raise awareness of and engagement with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) among civil society organizations (CSOs), Pyi Gyi Khin and Community Partners International (CPI) organized a CSO Health Forum in Loikaw, Kayah State, on August 20 and 21, 2018. The forum brought together around 60 representatives of 15 CSOs implementing health care activities in Kayah State, the Director of the Kayah State Health Department and staff from all seven of Kayah State’s Township Health Departments.

​Many thousands of people in Kayin State, Myanmar, continue to be affected by severe flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains. The floods have displaced many families from their homes and thousands have sought shelter in flood relief camps. For women and girls, displacement often makes it more difficult to access key services such as sexual and reproductive health care and can place them at higher risk of gender-based violence.