Nov 20 2009
A Lancet World Report examines how a small group of village volunteers trained in basic health care are helping to improve the health of Ugandan children. "In a country where government spending on health is US$39 per person and 13% of children younger than 5 years die, trained volunteer health workers can make a substantial difference in remote rural areas," said Jerome Kabakyenga, dean of Medicine at the Mbara University of Science and Technology (MUST).
The article examines a program offered by a local university in Western Uganda where "a pair of volunteers in each of 175 villages in the region" receive training "in a set of basic child health concepts known as Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)," a child health approach designed by WHO and UNICEF.
The article also looks at the debate over the role volunteers can play in improving health conditions (Webster, 11/21).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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