Some of the community health volunteers moving round the communities with bicycles for outreach programmes
Some of the community health volunteers moving round the communities with bicycles for outreach programmes

Pedalling for life: How bicycles are saving lives in the Upper East Region 

For the past years, the Upper East Region has been grabbling with inadequate health infrastructure.

The situation which has left many residents with limited access to basic healthcare is dire in the remote communities.

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In emergencies, the distance to the nearest hospital can mean the difference between life and death especially for pregnant women, children, elderly and physically challenged person.

Out of the 526 Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) zones earmarked for the establishment of health centres,341 zones have facilities while the remaining 196 zones do not have.

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What this means is that the only option for residents in these unserved zones is to trek several kilometres to nearby facilities to access healthcare.

Even with communities that have CHPS, some are in deplorable state with no water and electricity connectivity while others are makeshift structures.

For instance, at Kandiga, a farming community in the Kasena Nankana West District, the health officials are perching in a deplorable facility owned by the local church to render services to the residents.

Volunteers 

In the face of these challenges, community health volunteers have stepped in to fill the void left by inadequate infrastructure. 

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Armed with bicycles, these volunteers travel from home to home to educate residents on health-related issues as well as assist them in times of emergencies to access health care.

Also, they support health officials to carry out outreach programmes such as vaccination campaigns.

The volunteers were trained by UNICEF and GHS on basic health issues such as improving nutrition of infants, pregnant women, hygiene and general wellbeing of community members.

A community health volunteer interacting at a community engagement

In addition, they were provided with bicycles, wellington boots, torch lights, raincoats and other logistics for their outreach activities.

The intervention formed part of phase two of the CHPS Plus project which is being implemented by KOICA and UNICEF in the area. The project seeks to equip CHPS zones, health centres and facilities with medical equipment including building the capacity of health workers and volunteers for better outcomes.

Experience

Sharing his experience, a community health volunteer at Kandiga, Akanbange Chirstopher said as community health volunteers the bicycles enables them to visit remote communities to sensitise the residents to health issues.

“The bicycle is helping us to go round to undertake outreach programmes, sometimes when pregnant women are in labour even in the night, the y always call us to assist.

In such cases, we first of all inform the health centre before assisting to convey the person to the facility for medical care” he explained.

Another volunteer, Thomas Abugri “in my community there is no CHPS nearby. Many people, especially pregnant women and young children, cannot travel the long distances to get care so we use the bicycles to visit them in their homes, offer health education and even assist them to access medical care in case of emergencies”.

Health outcomes 

The Kasena Nankana West District Health Director, Lawal Alhassan, indicated that the volunteers’ efforts were improving healthcare outcomes, especially in preventive care in the area.

He added that “immunisation rates in some communities have risen and the spread of preventable diseases like malaria and cholera has decreased, thanks to the proactive approach of these bicycle-riding community health volunteers”.

For his part, the Upper East Regional Coordinator of CHPS, Dr Emmanuel Ansu-Abina indicated that a total of 630 bicycles, tricycle ambulances, medical equipment and other medical consumable were distributed to various health facilities through the project.

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He said the about 100 CHPS zones was benefiting from the project, adding that efforts of the community health volunteers was complementing the work of health workers which was improving health outcomes in the region.

However, he appealed for the construction of more CHPS facilities in the region to help bridge the infrastructure gap and bring health care to the doorsteps of the people.

Writer’s email:[email protected],gh


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