NEWS - NAMIBIA
| 2013-08-01MoHSS assists Otjimuhaka villagers
Hileni Nembwaya
HOW IT’S DONE ... Sunday Ipinge demonstrates how a pregnant woman is being screened at Otjimuhaka village.
Photograph by Hileni Nembwaya
THE Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) has implemented a health extension worker (HEW) system that is aimed at improving access to primary health care and social welfare for rural communities in Kunene region.
Opuwo district hospital chief health programme administrator Jogbeth Karutjaiva said the overall objective of the system is to increase the awareness and knowledge to improve the attitudes and practices related to the prevention, promotion, treatment and rehabilitation of common conditions in order to improve the health of life in households and communities.
“The drought problem remains a challenge as many people have now moved to different areas in search of survival and it has become a problem for many people to reach the hospital,” said Karutjaiva.
This is in spite of the fact that the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (Unicef) and USAID have been assisting during the initial phase and have been funding the system since the launch on 12 April 2012.
Karutjaiva said 40 health extension workers were trained for a period of six months from April to September 2012 but only 34 of them graduated and will be deployed in Etanga, Okangwati and Otjimuhaka.
A lack of confidence and counselling skills among some extension workers, their poor turn over and walking long distances and a lack of public transport remains a big challenge for them in the region.
One of the community based extension workers at Otjimuhaka village, about 100 km from Opuwo, Sunday Ipinge said there is a high turn over from the community members since many of them are willing to work with them but cultural practices continue to play a big role as many of the community members still believe in traditional medicine and witchcraft.
“Cultural practices are very high in the area and many people still believe in witchcraft, even though we are trying our best to create awareness among villagers,” Ipinge said.
The area is also said to have experienced a lot of cholera cases because it is based at the Kunene river border post and a lot of Angolan nationals have been suspected of spread the virus because they are always crossing the border into Namibia on a daily basis.
Malaria is also said to be high in the area and it still remains a challenge too.
According to the information obtained from UNICEF, the MoHSS has allocated US$18 million for the next two years in order to scale up the HEW information and evidence on strengths and weakness of extension workers.
“The drought problem remains a challenge as many people have now moved to different areas in search of survival and it has become a problem for many people to reach the hospital,” said Karutjaiva.
This is in spite of the fact that the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (Unicef) and USAID have been assisting during the initial phase and have been funding the system since the launch on 12 April 2012.
Karutjaiva said 40 health extension workers were trained for a period of six months from April to September 2012 but only 34 of them graduated and will be deployed in Etanga, Okangwati and Otjimuhaka.
A lack of confidence and counselling skills among some extension workers, their poor turn over and walking long distances and a lack of public transport remains a big challenge for them in the region.
One of the community based extension workers at Otjimuhaka village, about 100 km from Opuwo, Sunday Ipinge said there is a high turn over from the community members since many of them are willing to work with them but cultural practices continue to play a big role as many of the community members still believe in traditional medicine and witchcraft.
“Cultural practices are very high in the area and many people still believe in witchcraft, even though we are trying our best to create awareness among villagers,” Ipinge said.
The area is also said to have experienced a lot of cholera cases because it is based at the Kunene river border post and a lot of Angolan nationals have been suspected of spread the virus because they are always crossing the border into Namibia on a daily basis.
Malaria is also said to be high in the area and it still remains a challenge too.
According to the information obtained from UNICEF, the MoHSS has allocated US$18 million for the next two years in order to scale up the HEW information and evidence on strengths and weakness of extension workers.
