Written by Paul Bettings.
Several times a week, Florence walks for hours along dusty roads, up and down hills, through rough terrain and across rivers—all to reach her patients. Florence came to be an ENRICH-trained Community Health Worker after seeing first-hand how a lack of health care was affecting her village.
For years Florence saw people in her community falling ill with little knowledge about how to get better. As the adage goes, she knew she had to be the change she wanted to see.
She completed her training in 2016 as a Community Health Worker—a person trained to deliver basic health services but who doesn’t hold a professional health qualification. In some remote areas where ENRICH operates, community health workers are the only accessible source of health support for women and children.
Florence providing training with health advice and support. Photo: Paul Bettings
Today, in addition to caring for her own family, which includes four children, she visits other families to give them health advice and support. It makes a difference. One family has credited Florence with the survival of their newborn baby. When Florence first visited the family, the child was malnourished and ill. But with regular health monitoring and parental education about what to feed children and how to notice signs of illness, Florence was able to help the baby return to good health.
Florence sees as many as five families a week so this is just one of many such success stories. With support from ENRICH she’s changing her community one health visit at a time.