Community health volunteers get on their bikes

The Burundi Red Cross has launched a project in which 279 community volunteers are getting on their bikes to bring information to people at grassroots level on priority health issues. The volunteers have been recruited and trained to give people throughout the northern provinces of Ngozi, Muyinga, Kirundo, Muramvya and Gitega basic health information on immunisation, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, nutrition and diarrhoeal diseases. One of their priorities is to locate expectant mothers and newborn babies in need of vaccination as well as under-fives who require supplementary feeding. The community-based volunteers, two of whom will share one bicycle to make their rounds, will spray insecticides and distribute impregnated mosquito nets to tackle malaria, two million cases of which are reported in Burundi each year. They will also gather information about the general state of health and hygiene, and refer people in need of particular assistance to the nearest medical facilities. "In a region where cholera and diarrhoeal diseases are endemic, this represents a pure example of self-help," says François Landiech of the French Red Cross, which is supporting the Africa Red Cross Red Crescent Health Initiative. "The community groups discover for themselves their hygiene problems and then find the solutions." The system relies on a team of Red Cross provincial health assistants, who are provided with a motorcycle and supervise 50 of the community-based volunteers, according to a Red Cross statement on Monday. Each “coach” also liaises and coordinates with the provincial health authorities and Red Cross partners in the area. Both UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) have used the community-based health workers, and the Red Cross expects the programme to eventually cover the Burundi Red Cross Society’s 13 provincial committees.