"Our role basically is to educate our people first of all," said Community Health Worker, Raquel Vega. “And, for us, to offer basic first aid service to our community."
Serving as community health worker for over 11 years
Located just off the Western Highway between Belize City and Belmopan is a small village known as Mahogany Heights. As the community health worker in Mahogany Heights, Raquel Vega cares for approximately 1,063 persons. She has lived in Mahogany Heights for 18 years and has been serving as the community health worker for 11 years.
As the country is learning to cope with COVID-19, community-based delivery of essential health services becomes a viable solution to the disruption of health services created by an upsurge in cases and lockdowns and to the shifting of the health workforce.
“Whenever they (people) come, I just have to make sure they sanitize, we do social distance, and we keep safe,” said Vega.
Through the European Union-funded ‘Health Sector Support Programme Belize’ project, funds were reoriented for improving integrated healthcare at the community level during COVID-19.
The EU, PAHO/WHO, and Ministry of Health and Wellness Belize recognize the need to respond to the demands created by COVID-19 while, at the same time, maintaining access to healthcare, especially for persons suffering from non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes mellitus. The collaborative effort is supporting an initiative that empowers Belize’s team of Community Health Workers (CHW) to provide basic health services such as blood pressure and glucose monitoring. The CHW network constitutes an alternative strategy for the continued delivery of health services during the pandemic. The programme, which involves training and equipping Community Health Workers to conduct outreach in their villages.
230 Community Health Workers, including Raquel Vega, received work kits containing non-contact thermometers, stethoscopes, glucometers with strips and lancets, and first aid kits.
