BACKGROUND Both non-governmental organisations and governmental organisations are very involved in the development and implementation of community empowerment programmes (CEPs). Because of various health issues within the community, 10 CEPs were launched in Ladysmith with a focus on addressing the particular needs of HIV-affected and -infected members. Of the 10 programmes, however, only four w...

BACKGROUND Programmes that promote early psychological development of children in the developed world have been found to be beneficial. However, such programmes are rare in underprivileged parts of the developing world. We adapted one such parent-based programme (Learning Through Play) for a rural Pakistani population and aimed to study if: (1) it was acceptable to community health workers; (2)...

Background Nepal is representative of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) with limited availability of mental health services in rural areas, in which the majority of the population resides. Methods This formative qualitative study explores resources, challenges, and potential barriers to the development and implementation of evidence-based Comprehensive Community-based Mental Health Servi...

BACKGROUND This paper describes the process of setting up community-based organisations (CBOs) of sex workers during the 5-year community mobilisation initiative of the Swagati project, an HIV prevention programme in nine coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. METHOD The Swagati project facilitated the formation of 11 CBOs through partnerships with local non-governmental organisations and meeti...

BACKGROUND The potential contribution of community engagement to addressing ethical challenges for international biomedical research is well described, but there is relatively little documented experience of community engagement to inform its development in practice. This paper draws on experiences around community engagement and informed consent during a genetic cohort study in Kenya to contri...

Stunting and poor child development are major public health concerns in Malawi. Integrated nutrition and early child development (ECD) interventions have shown potential to reduce stunting, but it is not known how these integrated approaches can be implemented in Malawi. In this paper, we aimed to evaluate the current jobs status of community health workers and their potential to implement inte...

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES THE SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE OF A SYSTEM DESIGNED IN RESPONSE TO THE HEALTH DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF TWO CONCOMITANT TRENDS IN POOR COUNTRIES: i) The rapid expansion of community health worker deployment, now estimated to involve over a million workers in Africa and Asia, and ii) the global proliferation of mobile technology coverage and use. Known as the Mobile Technology for...

Editorials 786 " Leaving no-one behind " is a rallying call to remind us of the need to ensure everybody benefits from the drive to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goals (SDGs). Building on the considerable progress made regarding the millennium development goals, there is a need for a comprehensive and coordinated effort to scale up effective interventions. 1 Achieving univ...

background : one of the criteria of health equity is having health insurance coverage. construction workers and their families are one of the most vulnerable populations regarding diseases and accidents. thus, this study was conducted with the aim to determine the utilization rate of health services among construction workers ‎and their families. methods: in this descriptive-analytical study, t...

This chapter examines the use of various categories of Community Based Health Workers as first line health workers in dealing with important health and social issues, for example with Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. It attempts to answer certain key issues: Are Community Based Health Workers valuable and cost effective? What should be their role? To whom should they be accountable? In what way shoul...