One Million Community Health Workers

Note: This post originally appeared on the mPowering
Frontline Health Workers’ Blog

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Today, one of the 1mCHW Campaign’s partners, mPowering Frontline Health Workers (mPowering) is announcing the launch of ORB, an online content platform that will play a major role in improving the performance of hundreds of thousands of frontline health workers.

ORB is the first comprehensive online library of high quality, mobile-optimized, openly licensed training materials for frontline health workers. Through relevant, timely training materials and information, ORB helps frontline workers access the knowledge they need to transform health outcomes for millions of women and children.

Every day, more than 800 women and 17,000 children die from preventable causes. For most women and children in developing countries, frontline health workers are the first link to the critical and primary health care that can save lives.

Photo Credit: Global Health Media Project

Yet many frontline health workers lack the training, information, and support they need to do their jobs effectively. Training is constrained by a lack of high-quality, relevant resources available for frontline health workers. With an exponential increase in the number of mobile phones and services worldwide, mobile health (mHealth) training is improving training for frontline health workers, but only on a small scale.

ORB responds to a global demand from trainers, health workers, and policy makers for improved access to mHealth training content. ORB uniquely brings high-quality health content, optimized for use on mobile devices, into a single platform, where it can be saved for viewing or sharing offline.

ORB is free to use, and available today at www.health-orb.org. The site holds more than 200 resources covering family planning; antenatal care; labor and delivery; newborn care; child health; and nutrition. We encourage users to view, share, and adapt the content on the site; and we welcome submissions of new content. Visit ORB today to explore the content; and contact mPowering to learn more.

mPowering is a public-private partnership of 17 organizations, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Our vision is a trained frontline health worker for every woman and child.