CPI Trains 30 Community Health Volunteers in Cox’s Bazar

On January 19, 2018, 30 active and skilled members of the Rohingya refugee community in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, completed a five-day training course to help prepare them to become Community Health Volunteers. The course was supported and facilitated by Community Partners International (CPI) in association with our community partner Prottyashi, with training participants from Prottyashi and PULSE Bangladesh.

Many of the participants held positions of responsibility in Rakhine State, Myanmar, prior to fleeing to Bangladesh - as teachers, aid workers and community representatives - and are keen to continue serving their communities.
 
The course covered a range of key health topics that will be essential for them in their work, encompassing sexual and reproductive health (pregnancy, contraceptives and pre-natal care); nutrition (breastfeeding, healthy foods, signs of malnutrition); dehydration and rehydration (including signs of dehydration and diarrhea); water, sanitation and hygiene; and key communicable diseases (including diphtheria and measles).
 
Divided into groups of ten, the participants will return to three refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar – Jamtoli, Moynaghona/Potibonia and Hakimpara - to work as Community Health Volunteers providing the front line of outreach health care services. Assigned to local Health Posts, they will travel on foot from house to house, educating households on how to stay healthy, helping them to understand the health services available to them, distributing health and hygiene supplies, monitoring health, and referring those in need of care to the nearest Health Post for follow-up.
 
This training course forms part of CPI’s ongoing efforts in to support Rohingya communities in Cox’s Bazar to meet their health and human service needs. We are strengthening community-led initiatives to address urgent service gaps and build long-term capacity and resilience.