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3 000 bicycles handed over to village health workers

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The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) yesterday handed over 3 000 bicycles to village health workers to scale up integrated maternal, neo-natal and child healthcare at primary health facilities and community level in the country.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) yesterday handed over 3 000 bicycles to village health workers to scale up integrated maternal, neo-natal and child healthcare at primary health facilities and community level in the country.

BY Staff Reporter

The bicycles, which were procured through funding from the German National Committee under the theme Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Rural Communities in Zimbabwe, were handed over to the Health and Child Care ministry at Beatrice District Hospital “One of the main barriers to affordable universal health care still remains the limited access to high-impact health interventions for those in rural areas and hard-to-reach communities,” Unicef chief of health Nejmudin Bilal said.

“These bicycles are a component of the village health worker kit that enables them to be mobile and efficient in accessing hard-to-reach areas that might not have access to health facilities.”

Unicef said village health workers had significantly contributed to the improvement of healthcare delivery in Zimbabwe through interventions that have resulted in increased early antenatal care bookings, institutional deliveries and post-natal care visits, reduction in maternal and infant mortality, increased immunisation coverage, reduction of communicable diseases through increased treatment adherence to anti-retroviral treatment, and overall increased community participation and involvement in health matters.

“The village health worker programme is at the centre of community health care services,” Health ministry curative services director Sydney Makarawo said.

“The attainment of the sustainable development goals may be achieved by providing health services to individuals, families and communities”

Unicef also supports the village health worker programme through procurement of medical kits and other tools of trade such as tennis shoes, payment of allowances and trainings.

“As strategic partners, Unicef and government have been engaged in the formulation of the strategic direction document under the Health Development Fund,” Unicef said in a statement.

“Working with UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], we hope to see an electronic database of all village health workers in Zimbabwe not only for payment purposes, but to improve co-ordination and tracking of village health workers for accountability.”