chw review_bishop_10.12.12

Community Health Worker/

Volunteer Initiatives

Caroline Bishop

CRS Health and HIV Technical Advisor

CORE Annual Meeting

October 12, 2012 - Washington, DC

Three Initiatives

1. Mobile phones to support ASHAs in India

2. “Talking Books” to support community health promoters in West Darfur

3. CRS Guide to Working with Volunteers

1. Mobile Phones in India

The Challenges:• Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA)

struggle to provide timely, comprehensive counseling to women throughout the pregnancy and postpartum periods.

• Supportive supervision of ASHAs is limited

A Solution

• Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)

• CommCare – an innovative mHealth platform that allows ASHAs to track and support every pregnant woman, mother and newborn

Video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QTjs61L5l2Q

Global Outcomes

• Published studies documenting how CommCare can improve access, quality of health services

• Randomized control study: timeliness of community health worker visits can increase by 86% through reminders delivered to CommCare users.

Kaushambi Outcomes

• ASHAs report that CommCare:- Helps them manage their workload- Improves the quality of their counseling- Increases families’ receptiveness to key MNH

messages• Pregnant women report CommCare’s interactive

format makes it easier for them to remember key messages.

Slide 10 of 16

Save the DateCRS ICT4D Conference

• March 2013 in Accra, Ghana• 3-day conference• 1st day open to NGOs, donors; local government

actors from West Africa • Purpose: learn about successful ICT4D solutions

in the field (especially health and agriculture) and discuss measuring impact of ICT4D

Purpose:• To provide effective

health and nutrition education, in the native language, to low-literate remote communities in West Darfur

2. “Talking Books” in Sudan

How it was developed

• Collaborative process with:– Ministry of Health– Local community members– Books of Hope staff

How it works…

• Illustrated pages• Including text• Sound track corresponds

to each page• Narrated by Darfurian

radio celebrity.“Eat Well, Be Well”

Use in the field

• El Geneina IPD camp• Community Health Promoters (CHPs) trained• Provided “Eat Well, Be Well” speaking book • Follow-up assessment

3. Guide to Working with Volunteers

Determining # of volunteers

Incentives & Work Tools

Calculating Volunteer Contributions

Thank you!

For More Information

Website: www.crsprogramquality.org

Caroline BishopCaroline.bishop@crs.org410-951-7480