I worked with Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA)—an NGO housed under the umbrella of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University’s Earth Institute— in Accra, Ghana to support the One Million Community Health Workers (1mCHW) Campaign, spearheaded by Sonia and Jeffery Sachs and implemented on a national scale in Ghana in partnership with the Ghana Health Service. I believe that Community Health Workers (CHWs) are essential frontline defense for people in the hardest-to-reach areas who need healthcare the most, but lack the resources to seek care at facilities often located many hours away. CHWs bring essential health services, preventative public health services and social and behavior change messaging to these vulnerable populations. Ghana was among the first nations in Africa to nationalize their CHW program. I was honored to spend my summer of 2018 researching the efficacy and impact of this extraordinary effort.

My primary role with MPA was to conduct a qualitative impact evaluation of the government’s national Community Health Workers program.  I conducted 92 stakeholder interviews in four regions of Ghana, moving from the Northern Region on the Burkina Faso border, through the Upper East and Ashanti regions, and down to the Central Region along the Atlantic coastline. I engaged stakeholders on various levels of the health system, ranging from the Director General down to the household members receiving services. We filmed all 92 in-depth key informant interviews that I conducted, and I also acted as the field producer for a short documentary film to present the findings to the Ghana Health Service. Lastly, I also supported the organization by preparing a baseline research protocol to measure the efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness of adding home-based HIV-testing and counseling interventions to the CHW’s care burden, called Locate, Test Treat & Retrain (L2TR).

You may read an excerpt from the research proposal and report, designed and written by me, here, or by clicking on the report cover to your left.

CHW SUCCESS STORIES SPOTLIGHT

Watch the video produced and directed by Millennium Promise Alliance, featuring my field production and qualitative interview work by clicking on the video image to your left. This video was produced to gain support and traction with the Ghana Health Service and the local and regional governments.

Ghana is on course to attain Universal Health Coverage for her citizenry as the Community Health Workers (CHW) campaign campaign gains more support. Powered by Millennium Promise Alliance Ghana.