Training community health workers

Context

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Implementation

Ticari and La Chaves are two young rural communities in the District of Rio Frio on the Atlantic coastal plain of Costa Rica The standard of living in this region is low. People lack many basic services including electricity, public transportation, potable water, and sanitation. Visits by health workers and doctors are irregular. In 1988, a Costa Rican nongovernmental organization (NGO), Fundatec (based at was conducting applied research to improve community health by controlling factors in the physical, biological, and social environments that affect the transmission of water- and excreta-related diseases.

Claim

Development of human resources for the health of children, youth and women should include reinforcement of educational institutions, promotion of interactive methods of education for health and increased use of mass media in disseminating information to the target groups. This requires the training of more community health workers, nurses, midwives, physicians, social scientists and educators, the education of mothers, families and communities and the strengthening of ministries of education, health, population etc.