Training and facilitation of Community health workers in Gedo region.

We believed that… community health workers will help the community with health improvement and disease prevention by conducting progress hygiene promotion activities and sanitation messages in the IDPs by making home visits and interacting with household members at the community meeting point/social service centres to determine the hygiene and sanitation situation and delivering key hygiene and sanitation messages, thus improving the knowledge and skills of community and act as Behavior Change Agents (BCA) in the settlements by promoting appropriate and desirable hygiene and sanitation practices within the IDPs.

We observed that… community health workers carried out a series of hygiene and sanitation activities in the settlements including proper handwashing, proper disposal of waste management, different methods of water treatments, and good environmental health which reduced chances of contamination and improve a good healthy environment in the settlements. We also observed the community health workers for this period were not adequate compared to the high pull factor in the IDPs and poor hygiene and sanitation in the congested IDPs as well as low hygiene promotion activities.

From that we learned that… facilitation and training of community health workers will improve hygiene and sanitation practices promoting good health. Equipping the community health workers with proper sanitation kits will facilitate proper cleanliness and proper management and disposal of waste at the IDPs improving households and community health. We also learned that radio messaging has a positive impact on influencing the community behavior toward sanitation and hygiene practices since it reaches a wider audience including those isolated by conflict and illiteracy and gives listeners the opportunities to make informed choices about their health, hygiene, and sanitation.

Therefore, we will…. recommend continuing training and facilitation of community health workers and increasing the community hygiene promoters, and modification of their remuneration. We also recommend radio messaging series be fully embedded in the program since it’s the best way to reach a mass of people in their residential areas.