World Health Day - spotlight on Emmaus International’s mutual health organisations

In places where health protection systems exist, the Emmaus movement campaigns for universal access; in places where public policies are lacking or unequal profit-making private systems are rife, Emmaus creates community-based social protection systems managed by individuals.

Although health is a fundamental right recognised by many international treaties, access to healthcare remains very unequal depending on where you live in the world. Low incomes, the prominence of the informal sector and the scarcity of public resources are all factors that restrict health coverage and access to quality healthcare.

The Emmaus movement knows from experience that illness and early deaths constitute factors which increase the vulnerability of the poorest people, keeping them excluded. This is why Emmaus has been working on this issue for over 20 years now, spurred on by Abbé Pierre. In places where health protection systems exist, the Emmaus movement campaigns for universal access; in places where public policies are lacking or unequal profit-making private systems are rife, Emmaus creates community-based social protection systems managed by individuals.

Today, these mutual health systems are proving that they are a sustainable means of overcoming poverty, and a path towards universal health protection.

There are currently four mutual health organisations within the Emmaus International movement: in India, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Benin. Thanks to solidarity between individuals and a financial mechanism (membership fees), they provide access to quality care which members were previously unable to access. The members (companions, staff members and workers in Emmaus groups), are involved in managing the mutual health organisation as elected representatives or as members through different existing spaces, supported by the movement. As a result, 4,895 members of the movement have gained access to healthcare again through these mutual health systems and have reclaimed their right to manage it.

Partnerships have been set up between groups and local healthcare structures, according to the context where the groups are located (rural, urban or semi-urban areas), allowing, in particular, for the introduction of third-party payment.