Press Home » Press Releases » Mission Press Releases » New Developments » Fact Sheets » Media Advisories » Speeches and Test » Development Calendar » Evidence Summits » Reports to Congress » Photo Gallery » FrontLines » Contact USAID »
	Front Page Inside Development/Dialogue Global Developments The Regions Focus on Nepal Global Developments Spotlight: Rescuing Haiti
	Focus on Nepal Nepal’s Beauty and Grace Hide Poverty Volunteer Health Workers Save Many Lives Landless Villagers Dig Fish Ponds to Improve Lives Late Monsoon Rains Trigger Fear of Landslides Warming Climate Melts Mighty Himalayan Glaciers U.S. Helps Peace Talks End Conflict Lemon Grass Oil Rebuilds Forests After Conflict Ends Trekkers Help Mountain Villages Develop
	USAID Information: USAID Country Page Stories From Nepal Strategic Plan 2001-2005 Mission Web Site Selected USAID Reports FrontLines May 2009: Nepal Radio Program Lets People Tell of Core Beliefs and Motivation External Links: Foreign Assistance to Nepal U.S. State Department Background Notes CIA World Factbook United Nations Development Programme World Bank Group
	Advanced search... Search USAID Personnel... Search USAID Documents...

Volunteer Health Workers Save Many Lives

FrontLines - February 2010

KAMDI, Banke District, Nepal—Sarada Yadav is pregnant with her fifth child and she watches intently as a volunteer health worker tells her about sanitation, health, and preparation for delivery.

Sita Yadav, one of 50,000 female health volunteers trained in Nepal by USAID programs, turns the pages of a display book to show the pregnant woman how to assure a healthy delivery and infant.

“She will need iron tablets at the sixth month. She needs antenatal checkups and a tetanus injection,” said Sita Yadav. “We talk about food, bathing, rest, and keeping away from all alcohol. I tell her about danger signs— headaches, convulsion, lower abdominal pain.”

She also advises Sarada Yadav to save a bit of money each month so she has enough for an ambulance and blood donors if needed. Asked where she plans to give birth, Sarada Yadav said “in the hospital.”

But in case she waits too long to go there, the volunteer explains the safe delivery kit she will give her. It has a sterile blade to cut the umbilical cord, sterile thread to tie the cord off, a plastic sheet to lie on, and soap. The pages she turns show pictures of all these activities— many women in the village cannot read.

The volunteer also talks about spacing of births through birth control.

Sita Yadav has been a volunteer for eight years, getting only 100 rupees (less than U.S. $2) per month from the local government. She covers 90 households in this agricultural village where buffalo carts and flocks of goats compete with bicycles and horse carts in the dusty lanes.

Tikaram Bohara, who has been a medic for 16 years, examines a sick patient in a health center funded by USAID in a village near the city of Nepalgunj.

“She comes right to our house and it is easy to approach her,” said the pregnant woman. “I think I feel safer. This service helps me and my child. I do routine checkups and know if I need to be worried.”

Sita Yadav, a Female Community Health Volunteer (FCHV), has only an eighth grade education. Some FCHVs may be illiterate— yet they have been trained to use the picture books to explain proper health care to millions of Nepalese women.

Another FCHV said that she had saved lives through her service: “My own sister had a delayed labor and I thought the baby might be asphyxiated,” said Sarada Oli. “I called the ambulance and both survived— they gave the baby oxygen.”

The FCHVs also can diagnose and treat pneumonia—a major killer of small children in developing countries. A very rapid respiration rate indicates pneumonia and the volunteers give out oral antibiotics. The volunteers also give medicine to prevent hemorrhage after delivery.

Some men are also health workers. Tikaram Bohara has been a medic for 16 years. He treated a male patient who came in with fever and stomach pains by giving out antibiotics and paracetamol (acetaminophen)— a pain and fever reducer.

USAID supported his training and the health materials at his small clinic. Seriously ill people don’t come to him but go directly to the hospital, he said. Still, he sees 60 to 70 people a day, providing free treatment and medicine. Aside from treating tuberculosis, seasonal fevers, and dysentery— the main problems—he also provides chlorine water purification and soap to all households.

“The FCHVs are like our right hand,” said Bohara. “They go to the houses, give out Vitamin A capsules. Before people did not take iron tabs but, due to the FCHVs, they take the iron.”

USAID-funded programs support Vitamin A distribution twice a year to 3.6 million Nepalese children, saving about 16,000 lives annually, said an aid worker.

But even with the good advice and help of the volunteers, about half of pregnant women in this village don’t have enough food to eat, said a local village leader.

The problem is even worse since the price of rice increased 40 percent globally; and the October flooding caused by a late monsoon damaged perhaps 40 percent of the area’s rice harvest.

The men are forced to collect firewood in the forest for sale, seek jobs in the nearby city of Nepalgunj, pull rickshaws, make furniture, or go to India for work. ★

FrontLines Editorial Director Ben Barber wrote this series of articles following a trip to Nepal in October. All photos by Ben Barber unless otherwise noted.

FrontLines is published by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development

To have FrontLines delivered to you via postal mail, please subscribe.

Material should be submitted by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov

To view PDF files, download
the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Back to Top ^