Community Health Worker Program

The Community Health Worker programme has been progressing since our last report was delivered in January 2024. We continue to seek funding to support our existing project concept. Recent medical post volunteers have helped to enhance our understanding of prevalent health issues present within Lobitos. Interviews with and anecdotal evidence from the Head Nurse of the Lobitos Medical Post, Luisa Cosio, have identified HPV as a commonly occurring yet easily addressable disease within the community. A broader understanding of cultural challenges related to women seeking sexual health assistance has also arisen. Based on these findings, we are intending to extend the project to capture the existing scope (diabetes, hypertension, and anemia) and sexual health (specifically HPV, with discussion of sexual health practices in general). 

EcoSwell is actively seeking funding to support the Community Health Worker programme in Lobitos. We are currently in development of an application to the Conversation, Food, & Health Foundation (CFHF). EcoSwell previously applied to CFHF for this project but was unsuccessful. We have received direct feedback on our application and intend to incorporate this feedback into our upcoming application which is due 1 July 2024. This grant will provide between $25,000 to $50,000 USD per annum, for up to two years. 

In addition to seeking further funding, one of EcoSwell’s previous volunteers, Carmen Perea, has generously dedicated her completion of the London Marathon to raising funds for this project through GlobalGiving. Carmen successfully raised $1,666 USD across 18 donors over the span of one month. This work from Carmen is greatly appreciated and is an example of what can be achieved with the support of our volunteers and their connections. We are confident this level of funding from CFHF in conjunction with what has been raised in the GlobalGiving fund by Carmen will be sufficient for the project. 

EcoSwell is eager to progress with this project, and intends to conduct a pilot workshop using the funds raised through GlobalGiving. This pilot will focus on delivering educational workshops and registering community members for public health insurance. We anticipate that this pilot project will be useful to support future grant applications and to establish the basis for the wider project. EcoSwell currently has two volunteers who are actively developing the project plan for the pilot. These volunteers have two more weeks to progress this work before departing on their travels. The project will then be actively progressed by medical post volunteers who are expected to arrive in early June. 

We are satisfied with the progress being made for this project. We will continue to progress with grant funding applications to support the full-scale project, and will continue with the development of the pilot in the meantime using the GlobalGiving funds. 

Many thanks for your time,

EcoSwell