Community Health Workers
It’s amazing to think of the huge impact that 150 committed volunteers can make in the world!
Our community health worker (CHW) partners are definitely uplifting lives!
In Malawi, babies are being weighed and monitored for their first 1,000 days in order to prevent stunting. Babies in DRC are getting immunized to prevent diseases. In several countries, mothers are taught about sanitation, nutrition, and family planning, so they have more control over the number of children they have and spacing between pregnancies. Caregivers are being taught how to prepare life-saving oral rehydration solutions from sugar, salt, and water to prevent unnecessary deaths caused by diarrhea (among leading causes of childhood mortality).
In the DRC, volunteer health workers have been trained as Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and are providing safe, clean deliveries throughout the many villages they travel to.
Our work in the suburbs pursues the same mission as our work in the villages: empowering women and children through health and education programs. Some measure of health services, however, tends to be available through government programs in more populous areas whereas little or no services are available in the villages. In the suburbs the health workers serve more as a link or connector between the local people and the needed services than as a primary health care providers.
Volunteers in each country choose their own names: in Nepal they refer to themselves as Soyamsebika (volunteers), in the D.R. Congo as Wasaidizi (helpers), in Malawi as Sinkhani (prevention), and in Zambia as Kafwa (helpers). Different names but with a shared meaning. They are the volunteer community health workers trained by HealthEd Connect. A mighty group of women (and several men) with a heart for serving their communities. We are so proud to partner with them!
Publications
Written by Dr. Sherri Kirkpatrick for the Herald Magazine, this article details the amazing strength, passion, and grit shown by the volunteer community health workers across our programs. Babies come to thrive, children have access to education, families have access to home care and comfort because of these women who volunteer their time and hearts. This piece reminds us that the path less traveled, the one community health workers walk every day, is the path towards a community of peace.