Community Health Workers Matching Grant Donation - May 2022
The Affirmative Fund has offered a matching grant Kshs. 1.0 million (USD 10, 000) to Common Ground for Africa (CGA) for Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Kiminini Sub- County. The roles and activities of CHWs are tailored to meet the unique needs of the communities they serve. The matching grant will enable the CHWs to carry out the following roles and activities:
Advocacy, outreach and enrollment, education and training, and social-emotional support.
CGA has up to the end of June 20th to raise Kshs. 1.0 Million (USD 10, 000). The funds will be matched during this financial year end June 30th 2022 and if not the funding will be returned to Treasury.
Help CGA raising the required funding for this matching grant. Please send the donations via Village Volunteers.
Overview
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 70% of people live in rural areas, where the best roads are often little more than dirt tracks (World Bank, 2015). In remote and rural communities, distance often prevents people from seeking health care when they need it. This poses significant challenges both for patients trying to access health facilities and for health workers conducting outreach work in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are less than 12 hospital beds per 10,000 individuals in Africa. This means that if just 0.1% of the population needed hospitalization, most of Africa’s hospital capacity would be completely full.
In light of the limited capacity of hospital-based healthcare workers and hospital beds, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are an existing workforce that alleviates the burden from the primary healthcare system. For most people living in rural Africa, the first point of contact for health care is with CHWs. Under the World Health Organization’s definition, CHWs are “members who live in the communities, are selected by the communities, are answerable to the communities for their activities, are supported by the health system but are not necessarily a part of its organization, and have shorter training than professional workers”. For more than 40 years, community health workers, or CHWs, have been globally recognized by the World Health Organization as a vital element of primary health care coverage, and consequently, a significant component to achieving universal health coverage.
Serving as the link between structured health facilities and communities, these workers provide a range of essential health services from prenatal consultations to malaria screenings. They facilitate access to health services largely in rural areas where health centers are few and far between. They have medical knowledge and are trained to treat common illnesses in children under five, support maternal health including family planning, link their community to HIV/Aids and TB care, and most recently tackle mental health, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases. Over one million CHWs in Africa live among the communities they serve and provide front-line care for malaria and maternal-child health issues. The potential to utilize CHWs for helping communities decide who should go to the hospital and who should isolate at home is immense.
There is a promising return on investment: according to WHO, investing 1 US dollar in a community-based health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa can produce an economic return to society of 10 US dollars. Yet unfortunately, in many countries, CHWs are not recognized in the formal health system. Because of this, the work of CHWs is often done on a voluntary basis or with very little pay. Volunteerism in this form is not a long-term sustainable option: CHWs are generally poor and their work requires an income. The lack of recognition stems from a lack of political will and investment.
Overall, a good solution for increasing access to healthcare should
CGA is introducing a social enterprise project to help support CHW who work hard side-by-side with county governments, implementers, and funders without pay. With our support, the local women and men will be trained to become frontline health workers who can deliver on-demand, life-saving care to families in need. They go door-to-door treating sick children, supporting pregnant mothers, counseling women on modern family planning choices, educating families on better health, and delivering high-impact medicines and health products.
Under this approach CGA will be implementing
1. Community chemists
2. Water filter distribution
3. Moyo Bag Initiative
You can support this initiative by:
Visit our Donate page and learn more!
The Affirmative Fund has offered a matching grant Kshs. 1.0 million (USD 10, 000) to Common Ground for Africa (CGA) for Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Kiminini Sub- County. The roles and activities of CHWs are tailored to meet the unique needs of the communities they serve. The matching grant will enable the CHWs to carry out the following roles and activities:
- Create connections between vulnerable populations and healthcare providers
- Help patients navigate healthcare and social service systems
- Manage care and care transitions for vulnerable populations
- Help enroll individuals in health insurance plan of the government (NHIF)
- Provide culturally appropriate health education on topics related to chronic disease prevention, physical activity, and nutrition
- Advocate for underserved individuals or communities to receive services and resources to address health needs
- Collect data and relay information to stakeholders to inform programs and policies
- Provide informal counseling, health screenings, and referrals
- Build community capacity to address health issues
- Address social determinants of health
Advocacy, outreach and enrollment, education and training, and social-emotional support.
CGA has up to the end of June 20th to raise Kshs. 1.0 Million (USD 10, 000). The funds will be matched during this financial year end June 30th 2022 and if not the funding will be returned to Treasury.
Help CGA raising the required funding for this matching grant. Please send the donations via Village Volunteers.
Overview
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 70% of people live in rural areas, where the best roads are often little more than dirt tracks (World Bank, 2015). In remote and rural communities, distance often prevents people from seeking health care when they need it. This poses significant challenges both for patients trying to access health facilities and for health workers conducting outreach work in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are less than 12 hospital beds per 10,000 individuals in Africa. This means that if just 0.1% of the population needed hospitalization, most of Africa’s hospital capacity would be completely full.
In light of the limited capacity of hospital-based healthcare workers and hospital beds, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are an existing workforce that alleviates the burden from the primary healthcare system. For most people living in rural Africa, the first point of contact for health care is with CHWs. Under the World Health Organization’s definition, CHWs are “members who live in the communities, are selected by the communities, are answerable to the communities for their activities, are supported by the health system but are not necessarily a part of its organization, and have shorter training than professional workers”. For more than 40 years, community health workers, or CHWs, have been globally recognized by the World Health Organization as a vital element of primary health care coverage, and consequently, a significant component to achieving universal health coverage.
Serving as the link between structured health facilities and communities, these workers provide a range of essential health services from prenatal consultations to malaria screenings. They facilitate access to health services largely in rural areas where health centers are few and far between. They have medical knowledge and are trained to treat common illnesses in children under five, support maternal health including family planning, link their community to HIV/Aids and TB care, and most recently tackle mental health, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases. Over one million CHWs in Africa live among the communities they serve and provide front-line care for malaria and maternal-child health issues. The potential to utilize CHWs for helping communities decide who should go to the hospital and who should isolate at home is immense.
There is a promising return on investment: according to WHO, investing 1 US dollar in a community-based health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa can produce an economic return to society of 10 US dollars. Yet unfortunately, in many countries, CHWs are not recognized in the formal health system. Because of this, the work of CHWs is often done on a voluntary basis or with very little pay. Volunteerism in this form is not a long-term sustainable option: CHWs are generally poor and their work requires an income. The lack of recognition stems from a lack of political will and investment.
Overall, a good solution for increasing access to healthcare should
- Be a combination of health and economic improvement.
- Be a public-private partnership.
- Supporting locals.
- Utilize existing local leadership, governance structures, and volunteers.
- Conduct constant outreach to and sensitization of the community ensures that they take up the intervention and sustains it, even in communities that are hard to reach or where people have low-literacy levels.
- Continually solicit feedback from the community on facility operations ensures that communities are up to date and more engaged in their local health facility.
CGA is introducing a social enterprise project to help support CHW who work hard side-by-side with county governments, implementers, and funders without pay. With our support, the local women and men will be trained to become frontline health workers who can deliver on-demand, life-saving care to families in need. They go door-to-door treating sick children, supporting pregnant mothers, counseling women on modern family planning choices, educating families on better health, and delivering high-impact medicines and health products.
Under this approach CGA will be implementing
1. Community chemists
2. Water filter distribution
3. Moyo Bag Initiative
You can support this initiative by:
- Support Community Health work project @ Kshs. 2500 (US$ 25) monthly
Visit our Donate page and learn more!