Community Health Volunteer's Training Manual - Population Council

Problems in accepting people
Everybody is knowledgeable
Interpersonal Relationships
We may not accept and relate to people as equals in health service delivery because we feel
we have better knowledge, qualification or experience. Our superior knowledge makes
us feel like “bosses” over our subordinates. An example is the relationship between CHO
and a patient or client from the village. The CHO’s knowledge is far more than that of the
patient or client. She puts up an attitude that tell you: ‘You don’t have to tell me what to do. I
decide’. That becomes her attitude.
See people as a project
This is when you the health volunteer want to achieve or solve a health problem in a
particular area, for example, removing a huge pile of rubbish at the outskirts of the town.
All you want to do is to get the community people to clear the rubbish. That’s all! No feeding,
no relation, nothing! It’s your job to get the rubbish cleared. That’s all you care about.
Some of the questions that show you are relating to the people on are seen in Box 1.3.4.
Box 1.3.4: Clearing rubbish Questions that show that you are relating to people
a. Why is the rubbish being dumped here?
b. Where are the approved dumping sites?
c. How far are they from the residential areas?
d. Whose responsibility is it to check that rubbish is not dumped there?
e. Why is the person unable to enforce this?
f. What will make the community comply with dumping at the approved sites?
g. What can the people do to clear the site?
h. What alternative do we have for waste disposal?
i. What can we do to ensure that once the rubbish is cleared, it will not be dumped again?
j. What will be the rewards and sanctions for compliance or non compliance?
Figure 1.3.4 Seeing people as machinery
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