Community Health Volunteer's Training Manual - Population Council

Preface
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The Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) initiative is the Government
of Ghana’s strategy to bring quality health care to the door step of the people. The
government recognises that the main producers of health are individuals and households. By
involving individuals and households in planning and delivering health care, CHPS aims to
establish sustainable systems for improving the community’s health. Community Health
Volunteers (CHVs) and Village Health Committees (VHCs) serve as the link between
the community and the health care system. They work alongside the Community Health
Officer (CHO) who lives in the community.
Since CHPS started in 2000, various training programmes and activities have been done for
volunteers by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other partners. Yet by 2006 a survey
funded by the CHPS Technical Assistance project (CHPS-TA) revealed that volunteers
lacked the basic knowledge and skills to do their work effectively. This was due mainly to the
fact that there was no manual to guide the training and the training had not been systematic.
Accordingly, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, the CHPS-TA project has
developed this training material for Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) and Village
Health Committees (VHCs). Though Community Health Volunteers and Village Health
Committees perform different roles, they are both called health volunteers and will be
referred to as such throughout this Manual.
There are three objectives for writing the volunteer training manual. First, the manual serves
as a set of resource materials that health managers can use to train community volunteers.
Secondly, it helps make the training of health volunteers more systematic and standardised.
Third, it provides skills to volunteers to improve teamwork, develop their personality and
improve attitudes for health promotion and community development.
There are four (4) Modules in the Manual, each of them is developed based on the
recommendations of a survey on volunteers conducted by CHPS-TA project. Because most
volunteers could not read and write, the language used in the Manual is simple and easy to
read and understand. Based on the findings of the study the contents of the modules are
generally adequate to fill the knowledge and skill gaps of volunteers.
The four Modules are titled
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Module 1: The CHPS Concept and Volunteerism
Module 2: Community Mobilisation and Tools
Module 3: The Work of the Village Health Committees (VHCs)
Module 4 : The Work of the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs)
Modules 1 and 2 give an overview of the CHPS concept, its origins, the framework and
structures and an explanation of the concept of volunteerism and what volunteers need to be
effective community health mobilisers.