Community Health Volunteers in Action
By Ellen Libby
Apr, 2019
Our arrival to the KIKOP Matongo Casa Materna (maternity clinic) and area community health center was greeted with warmth and enthusiasm. The KIKOP program leader, Kevin, and a few of the field officers gave me a complete tour of the clinics. I was impressed by the workload of the staff and their dedication to improving health outcomes in the Matongo catchment area.
After the tour, we gathered in a meeting room at the clinic where all the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) discussed the next round of routine home visits and the vital events data collection that is the foundation of our program monitoring and evaluation activities. To kick off the meeting, the CHVs led us through a cheerful Kenyan song to welcome us. Afterward, each CHV proudly stood up to say their name, told us their assigned neighbor area, and shared recent successes and challenges they experienced in their home visits. Their success stories were filled with pride as they shared how imparting new knowledge on healthy maternal and child behaviors and actions made a difference in their community. I could feel the energy level of the CHVs and their belief in the KIKOP mission through their impassioned outbursts of affirmations and songs. Before we ended the meeting, Anne made an announcement to the room. The CHVs had decided to give me a Kenyan name. Mimi ni Nyaboke. I am Nyaboke. The Kenyan meaning is sweet like honey. I couldn’t be more pleased with their name choice for me and immediately began referring to myself as Nyaboke.
As we were breaking for lunch, I had another surprise waiting for me. John, a maternity clinic staff member, heard about my enthusiasm for avocados after I gazed up and realized I was sitting under an avocado tree. He had managed to climb up the tree and presented two gigantic avocados to me. Delighted by this gesture, I couldn’t have felt more welcomed by this community.
The last part of the day at Casa Materna was spent with the field officers and health promoters. I was able to participate in the training of one of the lesson plans I helped develop for the Care Groups. Davis, a KIKOP health promoter, provided a highly interactive training. He engaged all of us in games and role-play activities designed to better understand the content and key health messages of the lesson plan on complementary feeding of babies. Since November, I have been supporting the team in developing the curriculums for the Care Groups. Curamericas adopted the Care Group model as a community-based program to deliver health messages to thousands of women. Going through the training with the CHVs helped me better understand the real context of delivering a curriculum and continue to improve the lesson plans. I can hardly believe it is only Day 2 and I’ve already learned so much!
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