We save one woman, we save one community (II)

Prevention of maternal death from an integrative perspective.

By Marco Paulini.

InPublic Health field,  health communitarian agent has ccontributed to decreasing maternal and child deaths because of the influence over people to change attitude and behavior, form sanitary brigades, contribute to recruiting, identification, and following of risk groups, pregnants are better informed about benefits of a well-controlled pregnancy, also transfer of pregnant and risk population to increasing of vaccination coverage in rural and urban/marginal zones, etc.

That’s why this 3-month project takes advantage of communitarian agents in the territory we are intervening on - the people inside a community with leadership skills, I mean.

This agent joins a team formed by:

• Who coordinates sexual and reproductive (SRH) strategy in the larger territory in terms of decision power.
• Representative of the territory’s municipality where we are intervening on.
• Delegate of a repressentative grassroot organization in the territory we are intervening on.
• Who lead the health stands inside our territory.
• SRH responsibles in health stands inside the territory .

This intervention looks for improving the attention by activities of health promotion through multi-sector participation and civile society commitment.

Specifically, it is focused on

1) Getting to recruit communitarian agents (CA) assuring one-per-town in the territory we are intervening at least.

2) Guaranteeing the permanent and integral training of CA.

3) Promoting the active and coordinated role of CA for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health services, identiffication of alarm signs, and users’ communitarian referral.

4) Granting non-bill bonuses for CA, enhancing their participation in the communitarian work.

5) Granting the right certification to the CA’s job.

This proposal is outlined by the multi-sector participative action. In that sense,  the reaching of the goal will be consequence of gotten sinergies among the different sectors.

It is necessary to say that Peru’s Ministry of Health has been developing successful experiences of health promotion by communitarian participation. One of those experiences has been the work with health communitarian agents, what has shown great efectiveness to face the sector’s problems.

Those agents demonstrated his commitment making actions of health prevention and promotion in their community. On this work, health stands and non-profit organizations had a singular importance, which  have contributed to improve the health communitarian agent’s skills for facing emergencies and communitarian health issues.

Post-produced by Sheyla Benavente.