Loima, April 24, 2024 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
The County Government in collaboration with Turkana Church Development Mission have trained 51 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and Community Health Assistants (CHAs) on Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) through “ACCEPT” project in Loima Sub-County.
The 5-day training ending on April 26, 2024, is meant to enhance to enhance skills of CHPs and CHAs in identifying, managing and treating common childhood illness at the community level, thus improving access to healthcare services for families with difficult geographical locations.
“ACCEPT” is a 3- year project that aims at improving practices and utilisation of lifesaving prevention and treatment services for malnutrition and common childhood illness in Loima and Turkana North.
Speaking during the training, Deputy Director Community Health Services, Jonathan Long’iti highlighted the importance of ICCM in reducing the mortality rate and improving the health outcomes.
“Through this training, our CHPs and CHAs will be equipped to manage common childhood illness and provide essential health services at the household level, ” said Long’iti.
ICCM targets the illnesses that cause most child death, which include pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, neonatal causes and malnutrition.
County CHS Coordinator, Dalmas Lokok explained that the training was an opportunity to overcome geographical barriers, bringing services closer to community thus reducing mortality to children under-fives.
Loima Sub-County MOH, Abdirahman Musa stated that they will ensure accessibility of commodities and supplies for the trained CHPs and CHAs for effective service delivery.
Routine supervision, MOH said, will also be provided to enhance capacity of CHPs and CHAs.
The trainees were drawn from Kang’alita, Nakurio, Napeililim, Kawalase, and Kotaruk Community Health Units.
The training materials include ARI timers, MUAC tapes, respiratory beads, RDT test kits and recording forms to help in enabling accurate diagnosis, monitoring patient health status and facilitating timely interventions to prevent complications of health conditions.
