20 Community Health Workers graduate from specialised Maternal, Child Health course

Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence has said the Ministry of Public Health’s (MPH’s) Community Health Worker (CHW) Programme allows the administration to tap into the human resource within the respective communities, thereby reducing the need to “send large numbers of persons into regions, who are totally out of sync with the cultural habits and the way of life of the residents.”
The CHW Programme, the minister said, is also the first step in eliminating maternal and neonatal deaths in hinterland regions.
“Having a (Community) Health Worker in every village in these regions means mothers have ready access to basic and essential neonatal services, guaranteeing them healthy and safe deliveries,” she said.
Minister Lawrence addressed the graduation ceremony for 25 CHWs on Saturday

at the Amerindian Residence in Lethem, Region Nine. The graduates, from the villages in the five sub-districts in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region, had completed six months of training that focused largely on maternal and child health.
“I hope that you understand it is now time for you to give back to your people,” Minister Lawrence told the graduates.
Best All-round Student, Michael Johnson of Baishaidrun Village, explained that despite having not completed secondary school, he was chosen by his village leaders to complete the training. He said serving as a CHW is his way of giving back to his community, which had offered him the opportunity to benefit from “quality education.”
Desiree Ayow of Gunn’s Strip, from where it had taken her two weeks of travel by land and sea to get to the training programme, said she would be returning to her village to “promote proper health.”
The training, funded by an Inter-American Development Bank $8 million loan, aims to ensure equity in healthcare services across Guyana’s ten administrative regions. The loan also covered the expansion cost of the Maternity Waiting Home at Lethem.