Female Community Health Volunteers – a cornerstone of Nepal’s primary health care…They are voluntary health educators/promoters, community mobilizers, referral agents and community-based service providers in areas of health as per the trainings received. They promote the utilization of available health services and the adoption of preventive health practices among community members. They also play a supportive role in linking the community with available PHC services and to continue to play an important role related to family planning, maternal/neonatal health, child health and select infectious diseases at the community level.
There are about 50 000 women who play this role all around Nepal. They are one of the main reasons that Nepal’s coverage for vitamin A and deworming is so very high (90% and 84% respectively). As per Nepal’s 2005 Millenium Development Goals report, if the present progress continues, it seems likely that Nepal will achieve the MDG target for 2015 (something quite surprising worldwide!). This is even though Nepal remains in the top 5 countries for child mortality rates in the WHO South East Asian Region. These great strides in improving child mortality are honestly quite dependent on FCHV.
Nepal Family Health Program, where I work, is a main leader in working with FCHV. As I met with the project manager for this work yesterday, I learned about the significant lobbying work that these strong women are doing at this present time to get greater compensation from their involvement in public health in Nepal. (some are even threatening fasts till death as a last resort to get their voices heard!) It’s a fascinating time and I can’t help but be impressed with how various partners engineered such a successful strategy, and with the women themselves who are making their voices heard.
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