A total of 80 Community Health Assistants in Busia County [CHAs] have hailed the government in partnership with AMREF Health Africa for initiating their training program in a strategy aimed at providing basic prevention and care services at the community level.
The exercise being spearheaded by the
State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards through the Division of Community Health seeks to expand access to essential healthcare services, enhance the quality of care, integrate cutting-edge technologies, and empower communities to actively participate in healthcare decision-making processes.
Speaking during the training session of CHAs drawn from four sub-counties namely Nambale,Matayos,Samia and Bunyala at Farmview Hotel in Busia County,one of the participants Albert Masinde noted the exercise will help towards sensitization of communities on best practices to live healthy lives.
He said both CHAs and Community Health Promoters (CHPs) are paramount in the government pursuit of fast-tracking implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), a program that seeks to ease access to healthcare.
“Well done to our government and its partners AMREF for pioneering this move which acts as a refresher mechanism to empower community health assistants who not only identify common ailments and minor injuries at the community level for appropriate action but also find and refer health cases to the appropriate health facilities, coordinate community health activities and collate health data from household level among other roles” said Masinde
While calling upon communities to embrace CHAs who represent a transformative initiative aimed at addressing the healthcare needs of the citizens,Masinde who is also a Bachelors Degree student in Public Health at Great Lakes University backed the government in its quest to deliver UHC.
“Unlike in previous administrations,UHC was not community driven and locals were not involved in spearheading these reforms towards better health care.Our programmes lead to a citizenry that’s more engaged in care decisions and reduce the financial burden on care within the health sector. We share health promotion messages, monitor chronic health conditions and treat common ailments and illnesses.Through all these strategies,government is various steps in the right direction to actualise UHC which is part of President William Ruto’s BETA deliverables” he added
The national TOT training expert Mildred Wanyama on her part said the week-long session will help people living in the villages to access better,quality and affordable healthcare. During the training,attendants are being subjected to community scorecard, a citizen-driven accountability approach for the assessment, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of public health services.
A total of 12,090 Community Health Promoters [CHPs] who did not get training on basic modules in 16 counties are undergoing a three-week workshop aimed at empowerment with basic knowledge, skills and competencies in health care services to enable them function effectively in the community.
Earlier this year the government released Ksh.3 billion to pay Community Health Promoters (CHP) across the country as millions of Kenyans continue to benefit from the landmark programme.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua praised the 107,000 CHPs saying they were unsung heroes leading the implementation of a programme key in achievement of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“You play a critical role in the success of UHC and you are critical pillar in this intervention of primary health care. You are the unsung heros having worked for many years without any administration thinking about you and your welfare,” the DP said
