Women Leading the Fight for Better Health

By The Global Fund

March 6^th, 2020

In communities around the globe, women are on the frontlines of the fight against HIV, TB and malaria, as they strive to bring health to all. Women represent nearly 70 percent of the world’s community health workers, but their contributions too often go unrecognized and their work underpaid.

On International Women’s Day, the Global Fund is celebrating the contributions and experiences of women community health workers as they bring lifesaving health services and care to the people and places that need it most and are many times the hardest to reach.

India

Ms. Upasana is on the frontline of India’s quest to defeat tuberculosis. Upasana, a community health volunteer, works at the outpatient department of a hospital in Sonipat, north of Delhi. She wades through the lines of people crowding the waiting room - mostly women in colorful saris - identifying those with symptoms of tuberculosis. Once she finds a suspected case, she accompanies them to the TB ward to speed up diagnosis and put them quickly on treatment.

TB is spread from person to person through coughing and sneezing, so putting people on treatment early reduces the risk of transmission. “People come to the hospital with many illnesses. I explain TB symptoms and tell people to bring their relatives if they have symptoms,” said Upasana.

India has the world’s highest burden of TB, but it’s committed to ending the epidemic by 2025. Efforts to find and treat more people with TB are showing remarkable progress.

Women Leading the Fight for Better Health

Burkina Faso

Sylvie Ouedraogo saves lives on her bicycle. Malaria is the leading cause of death of children under the age of 5 in Burkina Faso. When the rainy season comes, Sylvie and her fellow community health workers jump on their bicycles and go door-to-door to give preventive antimalarial medicine to young children in rural areas. Sylvie makes sure all children in the villages she visits take the medication. Once she finishes with one hut, she makes a mark with chalk on the door, gets back on her bicycle and pedals off to the next hut.

“I love to see children grow healthy,” said Sylvie, 29, who has children ages 10, 5 and 3. Doctors say seasonal malaria chemoprevention has cut cases of malaria and anemia dramatically among children under 5. Administering antimalarial treatment has been shown to be 75% protective against uncomplicated and severe malaria in children under 5 years of age.

Rwanda

Venantia Nyiraneza, a community health worker in Rwanda’s Gisagara District, arrived at the home of Donata Muhawenimana - a young woman eight months pregnant with her first baby. Venantia was here to check on the progress of Donata’s pregnancy.

Venantia visits pregnant women in her village, offering the information they need to manage their pregnancies while advising them on the need to visit health facilities during childbirth or earlier in case of complications. She is one of 58,000 community health workers across Rwanda who bring access to health care to homes of underserved rural communities. These health workers have transformed the way health is delivered in Rwanda, making communities true agents of their health.

Rwanda’s health gains are among the world’s most dramatic. Since 1990, under-5 mortality has decreased by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters, while the percentage of women giving birth in health facilities has climbed from less than 40% to more than 90% today.

Bangladesh

Shanta Islam knows the streets of old Dhaka like the back of her hand. A community health worker, Shanta visits poor families’ homes to make sure people living with TB are taking medication. She also sends suspected cases to the diagnostic center, where they can get free treatment, and raises awareness about nutrition and hygiene.

Bangladesh’s army of trained community health workers are playing a key role in the country’s hunt for “missing cases” of tuberculosis–people who haven’t been diagnosed, treated or reported. Dressed in her bright purple overcoat, Shanta is seen by neighbors as a guardian angel. “TB is a disease of poverty,” Shanta said. “I want to provide health to these people.”

Indonesia

Island by island, village by village, Chatrine Bagoewis and her fellow female community health workers in Indonesia are beating back a formidable enemy: malaria. During a malaria control campaign in a rural area of Sumatra, Chatrine took blood samples, distributed bed nets to families and gave advice to parents on how to keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes away. It was a lot of hard work, but the indefatigable Chatrine was satisfied by the end of the day.

“We need to be vigilant,” she said with a smile. “Our priority is pregnant women and babies because they are the most vulnerable.”

Indonesia has made great progress in the fight against malaria. Half of Indonesia’s districts are malaria-free and the country is determined to eliminate the disease. Posyandus, or community health posts, are staffed almost exclusively by women, who receive training to provide an array of services, from maternal and child care to family planning and immunization to nutrition and diarrhea treatment. They play a vital role in improving access to health in rural settings.