Last Mile Health - Urgent Ebola Response Campaign

Over the last three months, Last Mile Health has driven forward the expansion of a Community Health Worker (CHW) program in Rivercess County – a remote area of Liberia where the organization first started working in late 2014. In partnership with the government health authority, the County Health Team, last mile communities were protected from the Ebola crisis and are now gaining access to primary health services within their own communities through CHWs. The story below introduces you to someone who line manages a group of these CHWs, a dedicated and skillful member of our frontline team: Zacharino.

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In early 2015, Zacharino Garsaynee starting working with Last Mile Health to provide Ebola response trainings to community leaders in Rivercess County, Southeast Liberia. Zacharino’s role in the training required dedication and flexibility, as the challenges of rapid implementation during a time of crisis were compounded by the lack of transport and communication infrastructure.

As Last Mile Health looked to transition from their response to Ebola to their pre-existing model of using professionalized CHW’s to provide high-quality primary health services in all of Rivercess County’s remote communities, Zacharino was encouraged to apply for the full-time role of Community Health Worker (CHW) Leader.

The role of CHW Leader was one that Zacharino was already enthusiastic about, as he had lived in Zwedru, where Last Mile Health was founded, for six months. There, he had learned about a CHW program in the remote district of Konobo, where CHW leaders would travel by motorbike and foot to conduct weekly supervision visits among 10-12 CHWs all serving villages that were several hours from the nearest health facility. Particularly due to poor road and weather conditions, the role would demand the same dedication and flexibility that had been required of Zacharino during his earlier Ebola response work.

Zacharino applied for the role, was hired, and is now fully immersed in his work as a CHW Leader, playing a crucial role in transforming health service provision in the remote county through expanding community-based services. The Community Health Workers he supervises together serve over 2,500 Liberian’s living at the last mile, protecting them from disease outbreaks, and providing preventative and curative services for malaria, diarrhea, and acute respiratory illnesses among children less than five years of age.

Zacharino’s enthusiasm remains undimmed: while Liberia’s long rainy season has made his work consistently more difficult and time-consuming, he has expressed that overall he enjoys it and feels it’s very impactful.

Links:

• Last Mile Health