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{
    "id": 1485017,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1485017/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Siaya County, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Christine Ombaka",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "would give it to the community at a baraza or any other gathering within the community. They offer information about health and malaria, which is prone in my area. Young children die before their fifth birthday. Therefore, they are very critical in giving information to women whose children are still very young. This reduces the number of children who die before they are five years old. When it comes to maternal healthcare, where an expectant mother is going through some trauma with her pregnancy and there is threat to abortion, they call an ambulance at the nearest hospital to come and rescue her. They offer emergency services, in terms of calling the nearest healthcare centre to bring an ambulance and take a sick or a person in critical condition to the health centre. I see them linking patients from the village to the nearest hospital. Their role is so immense. During the floods and emergency times, their role is always called upon. They are the ones who distribute mosquito nets, food and blankets. They also help in giving people information and treatment. Even further than that, they take care of health. The community knows them. Sometimes, they also cry and say that they do a lot using their money. They are not paid properly. If Ksh2,500 is given to you on a monthly basis, surely, that is far from what is expected. Yet, they use that money to buy drugs like panadol and keep them in their houses. They also keep spirit for any wound that may come. People go to their houses all the time to ask for panadol. They are always equipped with medicines in their houses, which they buy using their resources. We need to empower and give them the opportunity to serve wananchi much better than they are doing now. We cannot expect them to use their Ksh2,500 to buy medicine and keep them. They are seen as pharmacists. They are the ones who keep medicine. People run to them and ask for medicine for headache and stomachache. They cannot afford them. We need to support them. Lastly, those are the people who are young and educated. In the past, we used to refer to them as traditional birth attendants. They emerged from there. They are no longer traditional birth attendants. Those are Form IV leavers who have decided to move into the medical line, and get some training to improve their lives and get jobs. They fall into that group. However, they have a bright future as people who can be trained to become full-time nurses. Some of them passed very well in their Form IV examinations. They can be trained to do much better or offer services that are higher than community health workers. It is also well known that community health workers are voluntary. They do it from the bottom of their heart because they love their job. Today, county governments are employing them, but they are doing it in piecemeal. They claim that they do not have enough money to employ them. Therefore, they are not taking their employment seriously. They are not on permanent and pensionable terms. They are just on part-time or little contracts here and there. There is no seriousness about their employment. It is critical that those people are taken seriously and be employed properly on permanent and pensionable terms. This will enable them to get proper training because they have the interest and spirit to serve the wananchi . The curriculum that is used to train them should be uniform and the certificates they get after training should be the same. This will enable them to move on the same basis with each other. By so doing, one will not be seen to be better trained than the other, but they will move at a level that they need to go together. Healthcare is important and we need to take it down to the community level where the people are. I support this and I hope we shall implement it as soon as possible."
}