“Success lies within the community:” A comprehensive approach to sustainably strengthening the health system though a village health worker-centered program
Program Context: The Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) is a local non-governmental organization (NGO) serving over 250 villages around Jamkhed in rural Maharashtra, India. Each village has an average population of 1,000. When CRHP was founded in 1970, health indicators in the area were among the worst in India. The…
A Community Organizing Approach to Identify and Address Barriers to Healthcare for Patients with XDP in Panay Island, Philippines
Program context: Serving patients with rare diseases presents significant challenges to well-developed health systems. In remote and underserved settings, patients with rare diseases are often neglected altogether. This case study shows how a community health worker approach, using “community advocates,” improves patient care and outcomes in even the most remote…
“Nothing about us without us!” Highlights of the 2019 Unity Conference
April 17, 2019 This week CHWCentral had the privilege of attending the 20th annual Unity Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. For our global audience, the Unity Conference is the US national CHW conference. Attended by more than 800 people, many of them CHWs from across the United…
Recruitment, Training & Placement of Community Health Workers in Baltimore City Healthcare Settings
Program Context: Baltimore City, Maryland (USA) is home to renowned healthcare systems and patients come from around the world to receive advanced quaternary care at the cutting edge of biomedicine. Yet the city faces a multitude of social concerns, with over 1.5 times the rates of poverty and unemployment of the…
Community Health Work Under Occupation: Towards the Development of a New Model to Address Social and Political Determinants of Health in Palestinian Refugee Camps
Program Context
Aida and al-Azza refugee camps were founded in Palestine in 1950 and currently have an estimated population of 7,500 and a population density of roughly 220,000 people per square mile. Aida and Al-Azza are adjacent to the separation wall and a military barracks in Bethlehem in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. A recent report described the Aida camp as the most heavily teargassed population in the world.1 Lajee Center, a community-based cultural center located in Aida, and 1for3, a Boston-based NGO that empowers underserved Palestinian communities, established the Health for Palestine (H4P) initiative to address the social and political determinants of health in both camps. H4P is a community health worker (CHW) program that focuses on non-communicable diseases and psychological trauma related to the historical and ongoing colonial violence that so profoundly mark trajectories of Palestinian refugee wellness. The program’s goal is to generate a people-centered grassroots health movement that will coordinate with existing health delivery partners, which can be integrated into a comprehensive health system. Starting in 2018, the initiative presently supports six CHWs and 80 clients. This case study describes the H4P CHW initiative and shares results of a recent qualitative research study that will help refine the program and contribute to its expansion in this complex environment in which individual health is heavily influenced by geopolitics.