WiRED Begins Collaboration with Tom Mboya University

By Allison Kozicharow; Edited by Elizabeth Fine

WiRED International announces our first community health worker (CHW) training partnership with Tom Mboya University (TMU) in Kenya.

WiRED CHW instructors from KUAP Pandipieri in Kisumu teamed up with instructors from Tom Mboya University (TMU) on the south shore of Lake Victoria to plan a five-week course using WiRED’s CHW Basic Training curriculum.

The class of 25 students included 10 CHWs previously trained by the Kenyan Ministry of Health and 15 students from TMU, each with an interest in medicine and the biological sciences.

WiRED’s CHW program director at KUAP, Lillian Dajoh, is coordinating WiRED’s participation. KUAP clinician Zablon Kitoli and nursing instructor Jennifer Muhangi, both with years of CHW training experience, are coaching the TMU instructors for this classroom training.

Dr. Job Wasonga, a professor at TMU and a specialist in public health and development, is coordinating the university’s CHW training activities; Prof. Charles O. Ochola, PhD, Vice-Chancellor of TMU, is administering the overall training program. In addition, Dr. Gordon Okomo, County Director of Health in Homa Bay, is actively participating in the planning and implementation of the training program. The instructors at TMU are Milka Akinyi and Carren Bulitia, both with advanced degrees in nursing.

The populations of Homa Bay face many health challenges, most urgently from communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases. The #1 cause of death is HIV/AIDS, followed by neonatal diseases and tuberculosis.  (For more information, click here.)

WiRED’s CHW curriculum (see article) contains modules addressing not only these infectious diseases but also noncommunicable diseases, first aid and more — including a significant series of modules specifically on Mother and Child Health.

Lillian Dajoh reported that the five-week course is at the half-way mark, and that the training is on schedule. In addition to classroom attendance, students are able to download the entire curriculum to their mobile phones. That enables them to prepare the upcoming classes and review recent lectures.

Much of the course involves classroom instruction, but a portion of the training includes hands-on clinical sessions — the taking of vital signs such as blood pressure, temperature, blood oxygen level and other metrics important in patient screening. Other clinical sessions include first aid techniques that address bleeding, burns, broken bones and much more.

The classes are designed to be highly interactive, promoting student involvement throughout the lectures. WiRED designed the curriculum to include the presentation of key concepts, followed periodically with Q&As. Here, students are presented with a series of multiple-choice questions. Their immediate responses are assessed for accuracy and corrected if necessary.

WiRED will continue to report on the TMU class outcomes. Note that WiRED is developing an Advanced CHW Training Program for people who have earned WiRED’s CHW Basic Certificate. We expect the new program to be available in several months.

Training CHWs is paramount to assisting the professional medical community, which is facing increasing pressure from the shortage of supplies, medicines and vaccines resulting from the abrupt U.S. budget cuts to global health programs.

As the urgent need for CHWs grows around the world, we view the partnership with TMU as a template to provide critical health training, using a professional level curriculum adapted for regional needs and resources.