What are Community Health Volunteers Learning at the First HopeCore Week-Long Training and Certification?
By Walter Echesa, RN
From January 13th to January 17th, 2020, HopeCore held its first five-day level 1 certification training for Community Health Volunteers.
200 Community Health Volunteers gather for HopeCore's first level 1 certification training
Village HopeCore Public Health Program supports 206 Community Health Volunteers (CHVs). The CHVs are crucial in our mission of building healthy communities through their health promotion activities such as door-to-door health education, tracing of immunization and TB defaulters, nutritional assessments, and referrals. To enable them to perform these functions more efficiently they require sufficient skills.
It is due to this reason that the department organized a 5-day CHV level 1 certification training from 13th -17th January 2020 at PCEA Ebenezer Kairuni Church. The main partners in the training were Village HopeCore International, Medtreks International, and the County Government of Tharaka Nithi.
The training was officially opened on Monday 13th by the Chief Officer of Public Health and Sanitation County Government of Tharaka Nithi, Fridah Muthoni Murungi, and the Village HopeCore president and founder, Dr. KK Mugambi.
HopeCore public health team who were instrumental in conducting the 5-day training
Three officials from the county; the Mwimbi sub-county Public Health Officer, Muthambi sub-county Public Health Officer, and the Community Health strategist Tharaka Nithi attended the 5-day training for support, independent observation, and feedback.
All 200 Community Health Volunteers with the team from MedTreks International
The training content was organized into 7 modules and the topics covered were:
Day 1: community health strategy, community leadership, problem-solving, communication, counseling, advocacy, and social mobilization.
Day 2: community dialogue, family planning, healthy lifestyle, newborn and childcare, and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH).
Day 3: maternal health, prevention of injuries (including falls, poisoning, burns, choking, and drowning), common conditions {cough, nosebleeds, eye conditions, ear conditions, skin conditions (scabies, tinea, jiggers infestations) and diarrhea, common injuries (wounds, burns, fractures, bites and stings) and disease surveillance.
MedTreks nurse Michelle, demonstrates proper technique for a choking infant as CHVs use their phones to record her technique so they can refer to it later on if needed
Day 4: specific disease prevention (malaria, TB, STI), Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), danger signs in children, lifesaving skills (theory)
Day 5: management and use of community health information
Dr. Esther demonstrates how to appropriately care for a sick infant during the CHV training
The skills trained in practice stations were: breastfeeding (correct latching), MUAC measurement and interpretation, how to check mother-child booklet and interpret growth curve, identify immunization defaulters, kangaroo care, how to give Vitamin A and dewormers, how to appropriately use water guard, correct handwashing procedures, first aid during nosebleeding, how to prepare and administer Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORS).
Medtreks International facilitated skills training in vital signs and sick children, CPR, wound care, splinting, choking.
The training methods included group discussions, brainstorming, practice, use of videos, and PowerPoint. There was a pretest for an initial knowledge survey, a daily quiz to evaluate the understanding of topics taught during the day, and a post-test. Certificates were then awarded during the closing ceremony on Friday.
Dr. KK Mugambi, HopeCore CEO and Founder is personally delivering the certificates to each Community Health Volunteer
It was a very successful week and we look forward to having another certification training for our Community Health Volunteers in August 2020.
To learn more about our program or to join our teams in Kenya, please contact us!
