Empowering Community Health Officers: Building Capacity for Sustainable Impact!

Project Vruddhi by Action Against Hunger is dedicatedly working towards enhancing nutrition outcomes in Sabarkantha, Gujarat, through collaboration with the ICDS – WCD and Health departments.

Community Health Officers (CHOs) are a new cadre of paramedical staff posted at Health and Wellness Centres. They act as a facilitator for ensuring timely provision of primary health care to the community. Through our intervention of Capacity Building, this cadre has been empowered for Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) counselling and has been very proactive for getting positive results in spreading awareness among the community and providing supportive supervision to frontline workers (FLWs).

One such Community Health Officers (CHOs) is Hitenkumar Vankar, who serves at Khedva Primary Healthcare Center (PHC).

*CHO, along with Project Vruddhi’s Field Coordinator at a joint home visit.*

*CHO- while conducting a Mother’s Meeting.*

To ensure consistency in organizing Mother’s Meetings across the eight blocks in Sabarkantha, Project Vruddhi has developed a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which Hitendra Vankar actively implements. He appreciates the way SOPs have streamlined logistics and enhanced community mobilization, thereby ensuring effective service delivery.

Moreover, in consultation with the Health and ICDS Departments, Project Vruddhi’s team introduced ‘Counseling Cards’ – an Interpersonal Communication (IPC) tool customized for tailored counseling sessions. Hitendra Vankar, has been trained for its usage and acknowledges the fact that uniformity of messages has proved to have impactful efficacy in spreading awareness.

Vankar’s extensive community knowledge proves invaluable, particularly in identifying community-level influencers for initiatives like Poshan Chaupal – an initiative by Project Vruddhi aimed at improving nutrition outcomes for both mothers and children.

We commend Vankar for his enthusiasm and valuable contributions. Offering training and development opportunities to personnel in the Health and ICDS departments, represented by Vankar, is a significant stride towards bolstering the system and fostering a sustainable model.

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