CABI Blog

AHILA14 delegates. Courtesy of Jean Shaw, Phi.

Report from Jean Shaw of Partnerships in Health Information, attending the 14th biennial AHILA congress.  Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. AHILA14 Days 2-4.

The papers at the past three days at the AHILA Congress have covered a wide spectrum of subjects reflecting the Congress themes: ICTs and access to information and knowledge. Information seeking behaviours, access to and resources for health information have been extensively reported in papers covering disparate groups ranging from academic researchers and students to mothers and students, teenage pregnant girls and older people (60 onwards).

Health information in rural areas..the role of community health workers

The problems of providing health information in rural areas, where some religious and cultural values can be a barrier to western medicine were the subject of a number of studies and lengthy discussion. They were enhanced by a session organised by Dr. Neil Pakenham-Walsh of HIFA, who had invited community health workers and their Project Manager, Dr. Edoardo Occa, to describe the work of CUAMM – Doctors with Africa (an Italian organization involved in the training of Community Health Workers at the grassroots level in seven African countries). 

Dr.Occa with Tanzania community health workers & trainers, CUAMM. The NGO works in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.

IT was an eye-opener to learn of the tremendous workload and the problems they met.

Neither of the two health workers who spoke had ever been to Dar es Salaam and their presentations were given in almost instant translation by Mr. G. Faresi a community health worker trainer with the project. To round it off we were shown all the books and equipment that has to be carried by visiting health workers as they cycle great distances. It is obviously very heavy.

This was followed up by an excellent and complementary description of training Community Health Extension Workers in Kenya – an initiative carefully planned and carried out by the Kenya Chapter of AHILA (Ken-AHILA).

This blog also appears on Global Health Knowledge Base

 Editors comment

•  the 3rd day of AHILA 14 was devoted to the  2nd HIFA conference.
  The session on community health workers & CUAMM, formed part of the HIFA conference.

• CABI's Global Health database has 1030 records on community health workers (FREETEXT search).  Even more records can be achieved using this searchstring:  "community health" and "medical auxillaries".

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