PHM-Exch> lay health workers (3)

[Claudio Schuftan]

from a practitioner in Southern India:

Serventi's claim is a little flawed. It is possible for communities to
support volunteer workers - depends what methods NGOs have been using. If
the communities are "organised" before deploying LHWs, they would support
them. The problem is the NGO, not the community. If the role of the
community has pride of place as opposed to that of the NGO, if communities
own, organise and manage their programs, then they will support their
volunteers. If the program has been NGO-centred, as most often it is, then
it would be a sorry story - dependent communities, NGOs who have made a
career out of this and thus carry on the educated classes' contempt for the
poor.
Also, the tendency is to look at communities with the educated class
spectacles and the tendency to reinforce old perceptions - that the poor
have no social capital, they need outside support, they don't care for each
other, etc.,
This is written from the experience of several decades actually doing it in
the field (albeit as part of a team) and not as a public health expert.
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