The government has embarked on a phased recruitment of 21,190 community health extension workers for 10,595 parishes.

The assistant commissioner of health promotion and strategic health communication in the Ministry of Health, Dr Ronald Miria Ocaatre, said the move is aimed at ensuring that health services are taken down to households.

In 2001, the government initiated Village Health Teams (VHTs) where a selected individual at the village level was tasked to help the government in health promotion.

While officiating at the handover of bicycles to VHTs and other resource persons in Busoga sub-region, Ocaatre said they are recruiting two individuals to serve as health extension workers for each parish.

“Government has so far recruited health extension workers in three districts including Lira district, Lira city and Mayuge district. We have embarked on recruiting in eight other districts including Kazo, Kyotera, Nakaseke, Namutumba, Kyegegwa, Ngora and Maracha,” he explained.

The doctor revealed that the health extension workers will be receiving sh150,000 per month which he said is not salary but a kind of facilitation.

Qualifications

The assistant commissioner noted that they are recruiting only those with ordinary level certificates as a minimum qualification.

“The interested persons are supposed to be between 18 and 35 years old. The applicants must be from that very parish and recommended by residents of the area,” he added.

Ocaatre said the government is giving the workers knowledge through training, and are to work with the existing health care facilities, leaders and the general population to be able to advance health and development at the grassroots level.

The commissioner said issues of low immunization coverage are some of those the workers are expected to tackle as they sensitise people.

“If we do not have high immunization coverage, it means we subject the children to getting vaccine-preventable conditions like measles,” he said.

He added that the other issue is encouraging women of reproductive age to seek care once they are pregnant on top of ensuring they deliver at health facilities and return for postnatal care.

Ocaatre added that the workers are also expected to tackle issues of nutrition and family planning.

"The girl child is dropping out of school due to issues of menstrual hygiene and teenage pregnancies. We expect the workers to address these through making reusable pads training among other interventions," he said.

He added that these are also expected to champion the fights against tuberculosis, malaria, HIV and AIDS among others.

Ocaatre said the workers are expected to tackle the issues of gender-based violence using the information government will be availing them.

“We expect them to visit patients in homes to be able to support them to take their medicines," he added.

He, however, said that as the workers are equipped with basic health training and given basic equipment to use in communities, transport is one area that has always been a challenge.

Development partners move to help

To ease mobility for VHTs and other resource persons in Busoga, Amref Health Africa Uganda and World Bicycle Relief have donated 300 bicycles worth over sh380m to three districts including Namayingo, Bugiri and Iganga.

Michael Muyonga, the program manager Heros for Gender Transformative Action in Uganda, a program under which the bicycles were donated, said the transport challenge has always been fronted by VHTs in the sub-region.

“We hope the bicycles will complement government efforts in ensuring that health services are brought nearer to people,” he said.

“We are going to have community committees which are going to be overseeing the use of the bicycles by trucking and engaging users to see that the machines are optimally used," Muyonga said.

Robert Okello Omach, the country manager of World Bicycles Relief indicated that the bicycles that are pure steel, are superior technology with each weighing 23kgs.

Omach said the bicycles’ tyres are pure rubber with the seats being UV resistant, meaning that even when left in the sun for long they do not get cracked.

“Each bicycle has a serial number that is attached to the NIN of the owner to help in tracing them if lost,” he said.

He said the bicycles that can carry loads of over 100kgs are unisex with a frame that has a deep, allowing both women and men to ride it.

Patrick Kagurusi, the Amref health Africa Uganda country director, said the provision of the bicycles is in line with the national community strategy where entities collaborate with the health ministry to support community health workers with technologies that help them to reach the last mile.

“The collaboration is to ensure that we achieve primary health care universally within Uganda,” he said.

What leaders say

Bugiri district Resident District Commissioner Paul Mwidu Kalikwani said the bicycles are to motivate the VHTs and facilitate access to as many more clients as possible, improving service delivery in the health sector.

He said intensifying disease prevention will help the public save the time and resources they would spend on healthcare and divert it to income-generating activities for the development of the country.

Agnes Taka the Bugiri woman Member of Parliament rallied communities to cooperate with the VHTs in the promotion of hygiene and sanitation in their areas.

She urged communities to work with the VHTs in the promotion of hygiene and sanitation.

“Let us have our pit latrines, ramps, bathrooms and animal houses put up so that we do not catch diseases,” she advised.

What beneficiaries say

Jessica Kwajje who operates in Hohoma village said with the availability of the bicycle, she is to increase the number of visits she pays to patients especially those on ARVs to ensure they take them well and have their refills on time.

Richard Mbarasa of Butanza village said on top of doing health services, he is to use the bicycle once in a while at his farm to fetch produce from the garden to the market.