WiRED International’s board of directors and volunteers are deeply saddened by the death of Tatjana Grgich, nee Cizmic, on September 2, 2020. She passed away peacefully at home with her family by her side. Mrs. Grgich served 30 years as president of the Tatjana Grgich Foundation, which assisted youth from Croatia and other conflict-torn areas of the world. She was also a founding member of WiRED.
WiRED International’s Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Kisumu, Kenya, continue to play an essential role in community education, providing advice on health issues as well as necessary referrals. In the final week of August, 14 CHWs reached 1,686 people, covering topics such as unsafe drinking water, COVID-19 and teenage pregnancy.
Increasingly, ministries of health, nongovernmental organizations and hospitals are turning to community health workers (CHWs) to fill the gap created by the scarcity of medical professionals in under-resourced areas of the globe.
The Journal of Southern California Clinicians published an article in its recent issue entitled “Introduction and Follow Up of Ongoing WiRED International Program.” The paper was co-written by WiRED Executive Director Gary Selnow, Ph.D., and WiRED Board members Maryam Othman, M.D., M.P.H., and William Crano, Ph.D., and it describes the then-impending launch of WiRED’s Community Health Worker Training Program.
Graduates of WiRED International’s Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program in Kisumu, Kenya, continue to play an essential role in improving the lives of those in surrounding communities. Since mid-July, 13 CHWs reached 3,360 people and covered health issues as diverse as nutrition and handwashing while also dispelling notions of how COVID-19 is spread.
During the COVID-19 crisis, when life can feel stressful and out of control, you have the power to protect yourself, your family and your community from some of the worst diseases on the planet.
As the world waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, it is important to remember that vaccinations can prevent more than 20 other life-threatening diseases such as polio, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, cancers caused by HPV, pneumonia, meningitis, shingles and more.
The summer is fast coming to a close, but you can help support WIRED International into the fall and beyond by signing up for AmazonSmile.
Buying through AmazonSmile costs you nothing more. By shopping through AmazonSmile, 0.5% of the price of your purchase will be donated directly to WIRED by Amazon. The percentage taken out of each purchase can go a long way in expanding WiRED’s work in low-resource areas of the world — especially through our Community Health Worker Program — as COVID-19 and other serious diseases continue to batter these underserved populations.
In low-resource communities around the world, people often are unsure about basic health practices, such as proper handwashing techniques and safe food preparation, much less how to protect themselves from COVID-19.
WiRED International brought our Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program to Kisumu, Kenya earlier this year, and since then graduates of the month-long course are tending to the health of the populations they serve.
Almost 1,400,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in India, the third highest global numbers following the U.S. and Brazil. In the midst of the pandemic, WiRED International is nearing completion of our Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program training in India, led by senior nursing instructors Professors Gandhimathi and Sivagami.
As much as we continue to learn about COVID-19, there is much we still don’t know.
Government guidance can be inaccurate, indecisive and even political, while the epidemiologists, scientists and world health agencies continue their research to nail down the transmission risks and prevention measures.
COVID-19, 100-year floods, crop devastation from record waves of locusts, scant health care. Now hunger and worsening mental health are sweeping through communities across Kenya, including in Kisumu where WiRED has been working for many years.