As a Health Worker, Here ’s Why Advocacy Is Important to Me
By Mary Peter, 2022 IntraHealth-UNC Summer FellowJune 17, 2022I knew I wanted a career in medicine as early as elementary school. My passion was born out of curiosity. My younger brother had recurrent difficulty breathing and needed emergency hospital care often. I wanted to know why these attacks kept occurring. But I also wanted to know why we had to wait long hours to get emergency care and why the hospital had no electricity or was out of medications or essential health care products.Growing up in such a dysfunctional health care system fueled my passion.I wanted to help others so they wouldn’t have to go throu...
Source: IntraHealth International - June 17, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Policy & Advocacy Health Workers Physicians Source Type: news

Early Intervention Among Women Getting Cesareans in Rwanda is Saving Lives
By MOMENTUM, USAID suite of awardsJune 10, 2022This blog post was originally published on the USAID MOMENTUM website on June 7, 2022.Read it here.Cesarean deliveries have become increasingly safe in Rwanda thanks to the efforts of the government and its partners to train and prepare health providers to perform these surgeries. However, pregnant women with previous cesareans are at higher risk of pregnancy complications, including uterine rupture, if not closely monitored in health facilities.Preliminary results of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) in 2019 ranked cesareans as the highest maternal mortal...
Source: IntraHealth International - June 10, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Health Workers Community Health Workers Midwives Source Type: news

Proactive Partnership: Nurse Leaders and Community Health Volunteers Work Together to Increase Family Planning Use in Kenya
By Alex Collins, Former health workforce technical advisor, IntraHealth International ; Janet Muriuki, Senior director of health workforce development (interim) Community health worker Margaret Odera counsels a client in February 2020. Photo by Patrick Meinhardt for IntraHealth International.June 07, 2022What happens to women’s access to family planning when you partner nurse leaders with community health workers (CHWs)? That’s what IntraHealth International’s USAID-fundedHuman Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Mechanism sought to find out. One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Natio...
Source: IntraHealth International - June 7, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Health Workers Community Health Workers Source Type: news

Health Workers in South Sudan Help Counter the Risks of Violence and HIV Infection for Female Sex Workers
By Gladys Achan, Communications Officer A health worker counsels a client at a Hospital in South Sudan. Photo by Trevor Snapp for IntraHealth International.June 01, 2022Poni’s* job as a female sex worker in Juba, South Sudan, is often dangerous. Gender-based violence is common and Poni, along with over 4,000 other female sex workers in Juba, sometimes experiences life-threatening situations while working.Because of ongoing conflict and insecurity, violence against women and girls in South Sudan is widespread. Sex workers are particularly at risk of violence due to thestigma that surrounds the profession. They a...
Source: IntraHealth International - June 1, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: HIV & AIDS Gender Equality Health in Conflict Workplace Safety Health Workers Source Type: news

We ’re Still Working to Make IntraHealth the Antiracist Organization We Strive to Be
By Polly Dunford, President and chief executive officerMay 20, 2022In May of 2020, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black Americans—on top of generations of systemic oppression and trauma in the US—spurred us to take a good, hard look at ourselves, both as individuals and as an organization that’s committed to equality, equity, justice, and respect. And we found that IntraHealth International lacked important strategies, policies, and metrics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. We realized we had a long way to go to become the organization we strive to be.Tw...
Source: IntraHealth International - May 20, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Source Type: news

What Will It Take to Get Nurses the Respect and Recognition They Deserve?
By Tracy Kobukindo , Nurse and advocate ; Carol Bales, Advocacy and policy communications manager, IntraHealth InternationalMay 11, 2022According to theInternational Council of Nurses, the global shortage of nurses could reach 13 million in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. And 90% of national nursing associations are concerned heavy workloads, insufficient resourcing, burnout, and stress related to pandemic response are leading nurses to leave the profession.Lack of respect and recognition for nurses and other frontline health workers, including ignoringtheir voices, lies at the heart of many workforce-related c...
Source: IntraHealth International - May 11, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Leadership and Governance Policy & Advocacy International Nurses Day Health Workers Source Type: news

This Is a Big Moment for Health Workforce Advocacy and Policy Change
By Carol Bales, Advocacy and policy communications manager, IntraHealth International Photo by Zoya Shehadeh for URC/the USAID Jordan Health Service Quality Accelerator Activity.May 10, 2022Right now could be a turning point for health workforce advocacy to increase support and protection for health workers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, as they continue responding to the pandemic and providing access to essential health services.In the last weeks, the US and the African Union announced new global and regional health workforce initiatives. Advocates, health workers, and policymak...
Source: IntraHealth International - May 10, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Policy & Advocacy International Day of the Midwife International Nurses Day World Health Assembly Health Workforce Systems Health Workers Source Type: news

How Can Health Leaders Improve Respect and Recognition for Midwives?
By Olajumoke Adebayo, Midwife, advocate, and founder of Reprolife Olajumoke giving a tetanus toxoid vaccine during a client ' s antenatal visit. Photo provide by Olajumoke Adebayo for IntraHealth International.May 04, 2022Imagine if midwives’ voices were heard, they were fairly compensated, had safe working conditions, and could perform their full scope of practice.Unfortunately, lack of respect and recognition for frontline health workers lie at the heart of many workforce-related challenges that impede progress toward ending the global Covid-19 pandemic, eliminating preventable maternal and child deaths, and ...
Source: IntraHealth International - May 4, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Policy & Advocacy International Day of the Midwife Health Workers Midwives Nurses Source Type: news

Olivia V élez Joins IntraHealth as New Chief Digital Health Officer
May 09, 2022IntraHealth International welcomes Olivia Vélez as our new chief digital health officer, beginning May 9, 2022.As a member of the executive team, Vélez will lead IntraHealth’sdigital health team and initiatives, includingiHRIS—IntraHealth’s free, open source human resources information system now being used in 25 countries—andmHero, our two-way, mobile phone-based communication system that connects ministries of health and health workers.Vélez is a registered nurse and a health informaticist who brings over a decade of experience in global digital health.“I am ...
Source: IntraHealth International - May 2, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: mnathe Tags: Digital Health Source Type: news

An Interactive Game Helps Men Start Family Planning Conversations in Eastern Uganda
April 12, 2022An interactive game for men that focuses on male engagement for family planning and culminates with achild-spacing planning card has increased family planning use in eastern Uganda. Facilitated by village health teams, the game—Together We Decide—is a collaboration between IntraHealth International andideas42 as part of theScale-up and Capacity Building in Behavioral Science to Improve the Uptake of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services project (SupCap) project.The project used behavioral science to design, test, and scale up an intervention that would help increase postpartum contracep...
Source: IntraHealth International - April 6, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Uganda Scale-Up and Capacity Building in Behavioral Science to Improve the Uptake of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services (SupCap) & Community Engagement Source Type: news

Where Are They Now? Guinea's Youth Ambassadors Continue to Promote Family Planning
By Katherine Seaton, Communications writer/editor, IntraHealth International ; Jen SnellApril 06, 2022When Abou Maimouna Diallo was a teenager, he didn’t have much information about sex. He had never talked about it with his parents or learned about it in school.After his girlfriend became pregnant, he knew he had to educate himself.“I decided to commit myself to the promotion of information on sexual and reproductive health and family planning,” he says.“To make sure I didn’t repeat the same mistakes, but also to help other young people.”So in 2016, he became a youth ambassador with I...
Source: IntraHealth International - April 6, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Family Planning & Reproductive Health Youth Source Type: news

Project to Improve Health and Nutrition in West Africa Expands to Guinea
April 01, 2022More women and babies in francophone West Africa will have access to integrated services as IntraHealth’sINSPiRE project expands into Guinea. In Guinea, as well as in eight otherOuagadougou Partnership countries in the region, INSPiRE works to integrate family planning, nutrition, and maternal, newborn, and child care. This means providing clients with a comprehensive package of essential health services during each visit—such as family planning and nutrition services and maternal care and infant care—to eliminate missed opportunities for care and make services more accessible for women and ...
Source: IntraHealth International - April 1, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Guinea INSPiRE Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Education Performance Health workforce development Source Type: news

IntraHealth Commends Proposed Billion-Dollar Initiative for Health Workers, Calls on Congress to Enact It
March 31, 2022IntraHealth International is joining our partners in theFrontline Health Workers Coalition in commending the White House forproposing $1 billion over five years for the global component of its Health Worker Initiative in its FY 23 Budget Proposal, released this week.We join the coalition in calling on Congress to enact the initiative, while also providing a more substantive allocation for core global health funding and global pandemic preparedness investments. Such an approach would ensure strong, locally led, interconnected systems to end the COVID-19 pandemic and better prepare for future emergencies.&ldquo...
Source: IntraHealth International - March 31, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: mnathe Tags: COVID-19 Policy & Advocacy World Health Worker Week Health Workforce Systems Source Type: news

To Improve Family Planning Services, Bangladesh Puts Health Workers at the Center of Training
By Mahbubur Rashid, Senior technical advisor Trainers hold up the competency-based training modules at a session in Bangladesh. Photo taken for IntraHealth International.March 30, 2022A little over three years ago, I began hearing about USAID’sAccelerating Universal Access to Family Planning Project in Bangladesh. The project—named Shukhi Jibon, which means“happy life” in Bengali—focuses on developing the family planning workforce and contributes to the health and well-being of Bangladeshis by increasing their use of family planning services. Shukhi Jibon, I knew, could make a big d...
Source: IntraHealth International - March 28, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Family Planning & Reproductive Health Education Performance Health workforce development World Health Worker Week Systems Management and Performance Health Workers Source Type: news

US Funding for Global Health Security Doesn ’t Cover These Essential Systems for Health Workers—Yet
By Polly Dunford, President and chief executive officer Polly Dunford, President& CEO of IntraHealth, visits Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda. Photo by Esther Ruth Mbabazi for IntraHealth International.March 28, 2022US funding for global health security has surged in the last few years, and now Congress has just approved a $510 million increase for fiscal year 2022, nearly doubling current funding. President Biden is proposing even greater increases for fiscal year 2023 in hisnew budget proposal, including a multilateral fund for global health security and pandemic preparedness. The US has alreadypledged $2...
Source: IntraHealth International - March 28, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: COVID-19 Digital Health Policy & Advocacy World Health Worker Week Global health security Community Health Workers Source Type: news