One Million Community Health Workers

One Million Community Health Workers

“CHW Principles of Practice”: A New Framework to Guide CHW Programming

Community Health Worker (CHW) programs have been met with alternating enthusiasm and skepticism by the global health community. Following the Alma Ata declaration, considerable investments were put into training CHWs during the 1970’s and 1980’s, and CHWs were considered central to the “Health for All” agenda.  But as time passed, questions arose about the effectiveness,… [ More ]

A Literature Review: The Case for Community Health Workers

This June a groundbreaking article was published in PLoS One, confirming not only the success of community health workers (CHWs) in low-resource environments, but also the ways that new mobile health technologies can facilitate the improvement and expansion of CHW programs. The article, “Community Health Workers and Mobile Technology: A Systematic Review of the Literature,”… [ More ]

It’s a Campaign Celebration!

Half a year ago, the One Million Community Health Workers (1mCHW) Campaign began an initiative to coordinate, expand, and accelerate community health worker (CHW) programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to meet the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is a special honor to mark the first six months of the 1mCHW Campaign’s existence…. [ More ]

Towards a global commitment in support of community health worker programs

Three years ago I was working as a medical doctor in one of the poorest states in Northern Nigeria, with sky-high maternal and child death rates, and even higher rates of preventable disease. My pediatric clinic was the only source of formal and free health care for thousands of indigent children in the city and… [ More ]