AMREF partners with CIDA to tackle Africa’s healthcare worker crisis and improve women and children’s access to frontline care
Through an innovative three-year program AMREF with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will train more than 2,000 community and skilled health workers in four African countries to significantly increase access to primary health care especially for women and children.
The program called – Building Capacity of Community Health Workers – will help improve health for nearly 500,000 people living in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda. The total three year program budget is $3.1 million, with CIDA generously committing $2.3 million.
“Africa is home to 24 per cent of the world’s disease burden but only 3 per cent of the world’s health care workers.” says AMREF’s Director of Programs Anne-Marie Kamanye. “This new partnership with Canadians will harness one of AMREF’s key strategies to addressing poor health - training health workers and connecting them to the local health system.”
Community health workers or (CHWs) are community volunteers who are trained to provide basic medical services. They can prevent and diagnose diseases like malaria and HIV, treat minor ailments, refer patients and provide support and care for pregnant women and babies.
They are critical to improving health in Africa, especially in rural and remote regions where health services are often obsolete. In some settings, a community health worker can effectively deliver treatments, and provide health education for common childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and acute malnutrition reaching up to 5,000 children in a single year.
Along with training health workers the new program will work closely with Ministries of Health improving the skills of district health management teams, community AIDS committees, health clinicians and counselors.
AMREF is also working closely with local health officials in all four countries to ensure the community health workers are properly integrated into the local health systems and receive the support and supervision they need to be successful in improving overall community health. Research will also be integral. Data collected over the next three years will provide important evidence in improving health care in all four countries.
“Trained frontline health workers significantly improve access to basic health services in communities, leading to improved health especially for women and children,” says Ms. Kamanye.
Learn more about the specific activities of the three year Building Capacity of Community Health Workers Program activities in; Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
For more information please contact AMREF Canada.
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