Center of community health and integrated rural development

SA/Z will expand its Kasangulu Township clinic into a Center for Community Health and Integrated Rural Development, establish 10 primary health care centers in outlying villages, and train 120 village health workers (VHW"s). A 12-bed maternity unit and a VHW training center will be established at the Kasangulu facility. The maternity unit will provide professional care during the delivery and pre- and post-delivery periods to over 4,000 women a year; nutrition, sanitation, and family planning education will be included in prenatal care. The training center will provide 40 VHW"s a year with instruction in midwifery, pre- and post-natal care, sanitation, family planning, and the performance of simple cooking and agricultural nutrition demonstrations. Each of the 10 village health centers established by SA/Z will be staffed by a resident auxiliary nurse midwife, and monitored by a mobile health team. The mobile team, comprising a nurse and a sanitation technician, will provide treatment and instruction to the villagers that is beyond the skills of the center auxiliary nurse, emphasizing under-five care and nonformal education in nutrition, sanitation, and basic food production. Villagers themselves will construct the centers, using supplied material. The project, which will reach 30,000 persons, is expected to cut morbidity and infant mortality in the area by 35% and 30%, respectively. All activities, with the exception of the mobile health unit, should be self-supporting by the year 3.