What you need to become a Community Health Promoter

The Ministry of Health on Monday announced that 100,000 Community Health Promoters will officially be unveiled on Mashujaa Day.

The team which has already been trained will be equipped and tasked with promoting preventive and promotive health at the community level.

They are trained members of the community who work as a link between the community and formal health facilities.

They are responsible for providing basic health services such as health education, disease prevention, and treatment.

But what does it take to be a community health promoter?

According to Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, the ministry and the counties selected the CHPs based on global criteria.

“This must be somebody within the community because they are going to take care of 100 households and hence must be living within that community,” Nakhumicha says.

The person must also be a respectable person in the community they come from.

By nature of their job, they will be required to interact with the people at the community level and get the relevant health information that will help in referral and also policy-making at the national level.

This means the person being sent to interact with the community should be trusted with personal information hence promoting the willingness of the public to share and open up about what they are going through.

“It should be somebody who is respected within the community so that people will not have a problem sharing with them some personal information. The community should trust that the information they give you will remain confidential and trust that you will offer solutions,” the CS explains.

“These are already leaders within the community so we have added the training aspect on them so that they can carry out the work of a community health promoter but equally they are already identified within the communities.”

The CHPs will be given kits and gadgets through which they will be able to collect data from the community.

President William Ruto has in the past emphasised the role of CHPs in the attainment of the government’s UHC agenda.

Ruto said the CHPs will play a critical role in decongesting hospitals in the country noting that minor ailments will be diagnosed and treated at the community level.