Community health workers a vital bridge, despite challenges

EVERYONE at Anichab knows Alexia Gaoses, and in turn, she is familiar with every household in the village.

Situated 75 kilometres from Khorixas in the Kunene region, the village comprises 82 homesteads and about 230 people.

Gaoses has been a community health worker at Anichab for about 10 years. Her work sees her acting as a vital bridge between healthcare centres and the community.

Other villages had their own health assistants but they left for various reasons.

Earlier this month, she told a visiting joint Unicef and Japanese delegation that a typical work day for her involves walking six kilometres from her home to visit homesteads as she follows up with mothers and their babies.

“We check the immunisation schedules of these children, because they are at high risk of measles, tuberculosis, typhoid and polio. We ensure they complete their immunisations,” she said.

Gaoses also provides health education to mothers on hygiene and family planning methods and she ensures children of various ages are immunised on time.

“When a child misses immunisation, I refer that child to Khorixas District Hospital or the outreach team that regularly visits the area,” she said.

Gaoses also interacts with pregnant mothers, referring them for timely antenatal care to ensure they are closely monitored.

In addition to the long distances she walks, her other challenges include a lack of equipment, such as to measure patients’ blood pressure, and no medicines for emergency cases, besides the few painkillers she carries around.

“At times, I fear being attacked by people, or wild animals like elephants that sometimes roam the area, as I walk between villages alone,” she said.

Unicef country representative Samuel Ocran acknowledged Gaoses’ cry for help.

“We will discuss with the health ministry to see how we can assist to ease your plight, he said during the delegation’s visit.

He noted that plans are underway to expand the training programme for community health workers, to enable them to deliver more services to the communities they work in.

Unicef has been working with the government to provide training for community healthcare workers since the inception of the pilot programme in the Opuwo district of the Kunene region in 2012.

Ocran was accompanied by the Japanese ambassador to Namibia, Hisao Nishimaki, Unicef health specialist and chief child survival and development officer-in-charge Gloria Siseho and Khorixas primary healthcare supervisor Augustine Day.

“We plan to introduce a one-year training programme that will make community health workers increase the scope of services they provide,” he said.

They will be registered with the Namibia Qualifications Authority, he added.

Day said when the programme started, the district had 40 health workers, but now only 13 remain. She appealed for the recruitment of an additional 20.

The delegation also visited Anichab clinic, 90 kilometres from Khorixas, where they were welcomed by village headwoman Hanna Awaras.

She said the clinic caters for more than 4 400 people from five villages, four of which do not have a clinic.

The nurse in charge of the clinic, Chrisley Abose !Awiseb, said their biggest challenge is securing transport for patients to Khorixas, as there is no ambulance.

“We also do not have equipment for procedures like measuring blood pressure for patients,” he said.

At times, expecting mothers come seeking help, but they do not know how to assist them, because they don’t have adequate facilities or equipment, he added.

Nishimaki said visiting the clinic and seeing the situation for himself placed him in a better position to seek the appropriate assistance.