Lokitaung, March 22, 2024, (Public Communications and Media Relations)
A resident of Kaeris Centre in Turkana North Sub- County, Alice Engomo has been voluntarily conducting home visits of people with disabilities (PWDs) with community health promoters (CHP) to clean their compounds.
Engomo, a member of the Kaeris Community Health Committee (CHC) representing fellow PWDs, stated that she would use her given responsibilities to ensure issues facing PWD are forwarded to the CHPs for action.
“I will no longer wait for designated dialogue days to share health issues facing the people abled differently in my community health unit,” she said.
She made the statement while participating in a three-day CHC training, which also targeted 15 CHCs from Nakalale, Lokitaung, Kaeris, and Lowareng’ak Wards.
The training, supported by Save the Children through the UKAM Project, aims to strengthen the governance of community health services (CHS) at the grassroots level.
The CHC is the leadership structure at level one of health unit that is tasked to oversee community health services.
“After this training, I aspire to be an advocate of good health-seeking behaviour, particularly encouraging women to give birth at health facilities, while promoting hygiene and sanitation with CHPs,” said Joyce Ekuwom of Epur Community Health Unit at Nachukui.
Selected as the women’s representative, Ekuwom stated that she would work closely with the CHPs to enhance healthcare in her community.
According to the Director of Community Health Services (CHS), Dr. Joseph Lolepo,”for the next three years, one of the main responsibilities of the community health committees is to identify the community health priorities at the grassroots level,” he said.
He further added that the committees, which are part of the community health workforce alongside community health promoters and community health assistants, will be linked to the health facility committees to improve service delivery.
Dr Lolepo said the initiative comes in the wake of the National Government’s shift to focus on primary healthcare through primary care networks (PCNs), which link health facilities with communities. The committees will also convene community dialogue days, advocate for CHS, monitor and evaluate, participate in work plan development for CHUs, and mobilize resources.
In Lokitaung, Sheik Mohamed Salim highlighted that his key motivation in accepting his appointment by the community as the religious representative was to ensure that CHP mobilisation would be inclusive.
