Principal Secretary (PS) for Ministry of Health (MoH) Ms. Susan Mochache has assured Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) in Nyamira County that they would start receiving a regular stipend through the donor funding the ministry receives.
Ms. Mochache gave this assurance while presiding over the Nyamira Declaration, on stopping the triple threat effect of early teenage pregnancy, spread of HIV/AIDS and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) whose increase rate in the country is alarming.
She observed that CHVs are very instrumental in our communities and villages because they were the first line care providers in preventing the triple threat effect on our teenagers. This is because they directly interact with these teenagers when they are conducting their day to day daily home visits to assess the well-being of vulnerable people in various homesteads.
“Our Government is carrying a heavy financial burden in sustaining those persons living with HIV/AIDS by providing them with free medication on a disease which is preventable. The reason we want to support out CHVs and motivate them to help curb our teenagers from the triple effect which is becoming economically unviable for the government,” the PS remarked.
She challenged parents to always know the whereabouts of their children because the current times are risky and to strive to provide for their basic needs so that they are not lured by men who want to exploit them sexually and leave them with multiple challenges in their entire life.
“There also has been an increase of sodomy incidents on our boys and unless parents take up their parental role seriously, and have candid discussions on the dangers of not disclosing abuse done on them, they could just be suffering in silence without anyone to share their anguish with and later depressed and may resort to use and abuse of drugs and other addictive substances and even lifestyles,” Ms. Mochache said.
The PS assured the CHVs that the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe has directed that all the money given to the ministry by donors would be given to them as stipend to appreciate their work and motivate them in their voluntary service in prevention of diseases in various communities because they then save lives.
The National Director of Health Services Dr. Andrew Mulwa confirmed that his department has already started laying down strategies on how the CHVs would be motivated so they continue doing the work of ensuring that our people are healthy, follow their medication promptly seek medical services early and adhere to disease preventive lifestyles to cushion them from the costly medical services.
By Deborah Bochere
