Class of 20 Kenyans Graduate as Community Health Workers

By Allison Kozicharow; Edited by Elizabeth Fine

WiRED International is pleased to announce that all 20 students who took our community health worker (CHW) training class in Kisumu, Kenya passed their exams with high scores and earned certificates to serve their populations with practical tools to help prevent disease.

Earlier this year the Trump administration terminated U.S. contributions to global health for low-resource countries. The resulting unprecedented health crisis led WiRED to act quickly. Early in 2025 we began adding dozens of new training modules and animations and quadrupling our CHW training programs, evidenced by this recent graduating CHW class.

The new training took place from November 3 through December 3. Of the 20 students, 10 have already been working as CHWs for the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MOH); the WiRED course will have upgraded their knowledge and skills. These students will return to their duties for the MOH, while the remaining students will return to various jobs or consider other employment options.

The new CHW class was the first class:

• where the entire group passed the qualifying exam with 80+%.
• to be required to take 34 separate exams – one at the end of each of the training modules.
• to take the qualifying exam (150 detailed questions) on HealthMAP, WiRED’s innovative and updated phone app, which distributes our material globally to phones and tablets. Scores are automatically recorded and provided to administrators.

Each student, starting on January 1, will begin WiRED’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program to retain CHW certification. These new CHWs will be required to complete 50 credits by December 31, 2026. HealthMAP will provide the study material, exams and record keeping for these CHWs. WiRED’s CME stipulation (also required by the World Health Organization) will allow CHWs to study new health modules and keep their already acquired skills sharp.

None of these students is slated to become a WiRED CHW, although each would be qualified if we were able to add slots. WiRED is dedicated to offering our CHW training program free of charge to businesses and schools.

What is the next step in expanding our programs? WiRED is nearing completion of its Advanced CHW Training (ACT) program. This training elevates student knowledge of public health and offers modules to train CHW managers of deployment teams. 2026 will be a busy and productive year!