We’re always excited to see alumni teams and their scaling successes highlighted! Cohort 1 team, Community Health Entrepreneurs, continues to scale their model. A recent blog from the Frontline Health Workers Coalition profiles Masuda, Shankori and Shilpi – three community health entrepreneurs trained through CARE’s model:
“These entrepreneurial midwives are part of a cohort of 300 trained by CARE International and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to reach remote communities with skilled health services. They are now covering all of Sunamganj, a population of 2.8 million. They have delivered 29,000 babies and have provided 738,000 services. Each entrepreneurial midwife is supported by 10 community health workers who educate the community and identify the pregnant women.”
Congrats to the team for now covering all of Sunamganj district!
Shankori is introduced to the community she will serve through folk song. The entertaining play draws in a packed audience and is an effective way to introduce them to their new entrepreneurial midwife, acting out how she can help when a baby is born and dispelling myths.
The CARE/GSK Public Private Partnerships (PPP) health worker program in Bangladesh has been highlighted on Devex in a piece written by Daryl Burnaby, Global Health Programs, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) and Tom Sessions, lead for Strategic Partnerships and Private Sector Engagement at CARE International UK who is part of the Scale X Design PPP team. The article articulates the shortage of frontline health workers globally and how partnerships between the private, NGO and public sectors can deliver impactful, sustainable solutions to improve access to health. The initiative is now expanding from the original six countries in Asia to Africa, starting with Chad and Cameroon.
This innovative solution consists of three key pillars:
A unique public-private partnership (PPP) between the government, the community and a new cadre of private, community-based, skilled, female, health providers. With funding from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), this new cadre of providers are selected from the community, trained using WHO/Ministry of Health (MoH) accredited curriculum, and are supervised and monitored by the government in collaboration with the community.
Community ownership through the establishment of a Community Support System (CmSS), a local government-led community mobilization model that empowers the community to play a key role in addressing demand and supply side barriers through health promotion, referral support and accountability. CmSS actively contributes to identifying appropriate female candidates for health provider training, negotiates and sets fees for service with private providers (which are in line with community needs), builds awareness and promotes the services of the new cadre of private providers, supports timely referral, and monitors coverage, quality and equity of service provision to ensure transparency, accountability and voice of the community.
Social entrepreneurshipand business training from JITA (CARE’s social entrepreneurship initiative) for the new cadre of providers. This training helps them develop business plans and become financially sustainable and independent by selling their health services. They also receive government reimbursement for serving poor and marginalized women through national and local social safety schemes.
Learn more about PPP by watching this video documentary!
Meet the Team
Jahangir Hossain | Program Director-Health | CARE Bangladesh
Jahangir Hoassian is a Health and Development Program development professional with over 23 years of experience in development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Primary Health Care (PHC), Reproductive Health (RH), HIV, Nutrition, WASH, Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) programs in Pakistan, Cambodia and Bangladesh. He has provided leadership and strategic guidance to different Health, Hygiene, Nutrition and Family Planning program with budget about $30 Million in 14 districts in Bangladesh and has a special interest in public Health System Development, health and nutrition in emergency, and Behavior Change Communication (BCC) to address equity and gender issues in accessing the basic health services. Jahangir is a registered physician with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from Dhaka University, Bangladesh and Master in Science (MSc), Public Health in Developing Countries degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK.
Rina Rani Paul | Program Manager-Research | CARE Bangladesh
Rina Rani Paul has more than eight years experience in program and research settings that resulted in an in-depth understanding of the contextual issues related to health and nutrition in Bangladesh, especially maternal and child health and nutrition and community health system. She has worked with leading Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Research Projects in Bangladesh for four years, implementing and monitoring both efficacy and effectiveness studies in the community. In addition, she has worked with reputed study groups conducting large clinical trials and cohort studies and following pregnant women and adult population for health outcomes. Starting as a field worker, she was progressively entrusted and challenged with more complex and supervisory work involving research project management. Rina Rani passed the MBBS from Rajshahi Medical College under Rajshahi University in Bangladesh in 2000 and is currently enrolled in the Masters in Public Health Programme under the Department of Public Health, State University in Bangladesh.
Mariela Rodriguez | Senior Program Officer-SRMH | CARE USA
Mariela Rodriguez is Senior Program Officer for Knowledge Management and Global Coordination for the Sexual, Reproductive and Maternal Health (SRMH) team at CARE. Mariela focuses on finding ways to elevate and share CARE’s global SRMH programming across the CARE world and with external partners and donors. Prior to working at CARE, Mariela worked on rights-based approaches to voluntary family planning, maternal health policy networks, gender inequality and human rights. She has co-authored four peer-reviewed journal articles. She received her master’s in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs from American University’s School of International Service and her BA in Political Science from Georgia State University.
To be hired | Senior Account Manager-Health | CARE UK
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