By Andrew Phiri
Applied Development Communication and Training Services (ADECOTS) has trained Community Health Workers Volunteers in Balaka District with goals of promoting the dissemination of health care messages and collection of feedbacks for proper health care referrals at community level.
Speaking on Thursday in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Inkosi Chamthunya, ADECOTS District Manager for Balaka, Brian Banda, said the training focused on maternal health services, nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS) and Gender Based Violence (GBV) among others.
“First and foremost, we want these volunteers to reach out door to door with health care messages that would encourage household members to go to hospitals in the respective communities.
“We also understand that people in the community may have limited knowledge on how to detect various health challenges some people are facing, hence we are optimistic that following this training, volunteers will use the basic health care knowledge to enlighten fellow community members to access the proper health care at right time,” Banda said.
He, therefore, urged the volunteers to exercise integrity and dedication to their work adding that this will help to promote the access of health care services at community level.
The volunteers have since hailed the initiative for easing pressure on health care workers both at community and district levels.
“Among other things, we have been trained to advise pregnant women on how they should access maternal health services across all the stages. For example, once a woman conceives, she is mandated to visit the clinic for not less than eight times throughout her pregnancy for proper checkups.
“The baby that is born, and the mother, should receive proper diet that includes six food groups found locally in order to boost their nutritional status,” one of the volunteers from Group Village Head (GVH) Siliya, Martha Nkhoma, said.
Nurse for Kankao Health Centre, Daliko Majawa, called for collective effort from the health workers and the community in order to transcend the values of the initiative.
He expressed hope that the enrollment of patients at the facility will increase because of proper health care referrals that will come from the community health volunteers.
With funding from UNICEF, ADECOTS is implementing a multiphase four-year project in Balaka District starting from May 2025 to May 2028, with focus on pregnant women, mothers of under five children, women and men of child bearing age, and health services providers from the areas of T/A Chamthunya , Nsamala, Kalembo, Phalula, Amidu, and Sub TA Mbera, among others.
