Community development and health are both linked and necessary partners in creating long lasting and sustainable improvements.
We have already discussed our Jobs Training plans on a previous web page.
In 2011, a Five-Year Plan was begun to build “People Power” building upon the work we’ve already done to increase the educational level of this population.
Please watch the video about the Five-Year Plan by clicking on the image below.
Primary Health Care System
At its heart, setting up a primary health care system involves community directed decision-making based on locally obtained information, and locally directed health focuses.
In 1978 The International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata defined Primary Health Care.
Read more about the 7 points of Primary Health Care.
The model we are using in Cabestor is based on a census-based, impact-oriented model developed by Carl Taylor known as the SEED-SCALE approach. (See the book: Just and Lasting Change, when communities own their futures by Carl Taylor).
Read more about our SEED-SCALE outline for Cabestor, Haiti. This is a plan for setting up a Primary Health Care model in our community.
Organization of Care Groups
Care groups are a rather simple yet powerful way to mobilize women volunteers in a community to form a network of households. Care group volunteers would both monitor the health status of a community, and distribute information and foster behavioral changes that would improve health. All of this would be integrated through community health care workers meeting with care group volunteers on a regular basis.
Basic organization of Care Groups:
Divide the community into groups of 10-12 households,
Choose one care group volunteer to represent this group of households,
Fifteen care group volunteers would form a Care Group,
Care Groups meet every 2-4 weeks with a community health worker to:
- Monitor progress or changes in the health of this sub-community
- Provide new health information that can be passed onto this sub-community
- Arrange for medical referral for conditions that need further evaluation