Breaking down the wall between health care access and communities

A new project by Save the Children Fiji is equipping communities with the ability to access healthcare in their own homes.

The Community Health Worker training has handpicked 14 leaders from six communities in Suva and Nausori to be trained in basic health care as part of the Community Child Nutrition Project.

These health workers will be the first line of contact for families in their own communities when they have health concerns.  The real benefit is the fact that families will be able to talk to a community member in their own home for no charge and be given advice on what course of action to take.

Save the Children Fiji’s Health Manager, Ashweeni Lata says accessing health care is confronting for many families but this program will break down the barrier as the health workers will be their people, from their own environment.

“These community health workers will be equipped with the skills to advise families on what to do on the ground and will also be trained later in the program to understand good motherhood practices and child health.

“This training will also be adaptable to what the community workers need on the ground and what their level of skills is already,” she says.

The main outcome of the project will be to form a linkage between the families on the ground and the Ministry of Health to help promote and advocate for overall community health.

Save the Children Fiji is facilitating the project with technical training and advice being given by the Fiji Health Sector Support Program (FHSSP) and the Ministry of Health.

The project is part of the Community Child Nutrition Project funded by Fiji Community Development Program (FCDP) and Australian Aid.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The six communities that are being targeted in the first phase of this project are Lokia, Vesida, Kalekana, Tamavua-i-wai, Valenicina and Wailea but the program will be expanded over the coming year.

  • Save the Children Fiji works in 52 communities across Fiji.
  • We currently have 20 Early Education Centres (kindergartens) across Fiji and the 14 health workers have been identified from 6 of these early childhood centres. 

The training will be completed in the coming month with three modules in total – Module 2 and Module 3 will be completed in the coming months. 

Module 1:     Basic competencies including the role and basic community health care knowledge

Module 2:     Safe motherhood practices

Module 3:     Promoting child health

This is the first phase of the project and this training will be expanded to include more communities in the coming months.

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