BRAC Pakistan, in partnership with the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) are working to train 720 women as Community Health Worker Trainers, in 36 districts of Punjab, Lahore.
The initiative, which was instigated by the Chief Minister’s office, will fill gaps in the training manuals and curriculum for health workers in Pakistan. BRAC’s extensive experience delivering community healthcare in Bangladesh, Pakistan and 5 additional countries in Africa and Asia will support best practice dissemination in training.
BRAC will ensure 720 health worker trainers are trained in communication, monitoring, supervisory skills and core medical skills and they will further roll out capacity building and training to 48,000 health workers within 6 months. BRAC will also arrange exposure visits to Bangladesh where they can learn about the BRAC model of health delivery. Front line door-to-door community health care workers, called Shasthya Shebikas and Shasthya Kormis in Bangladesh, enable BRAC to reach millions of people with low-cost basic health care. Each health worker visits 120 households every month and is best placed to identify cases, administer basic care and refer urgent symptoms to local clinics. BRAC cater especially for the needs of families living in ultra poverty, who endure the toughest economic situations and health conditions.
The Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) is a not-for-profit company established by the Government of Punjab, Pakistan to increase access for low income, poor and vulnerable people to vocational training and skills programmes, to enable them to earn higher incomes.