Community Health Workers Externship Program
Interested? Click here to apply (application deadline is April 1, 2012)
The Community Health Workers (CHW) program is a supplemental program of Global Brigades that strives to bring the power of health care into the hands of the community members themselves. The CHW program promotes sustainability by offering intensive health worker training courses to volunteers within the communities we serve. The goal of this program is to empower local community members to maintain consistent, local healthcare in between brigade seasons through training and educational means. The idea is to allow for further sustainability and to ensure that the good we do on Medical Brigades is being perpetuated. We take the CHWs through a full course through which they are educated on first aid and CPR, emergency response, wound care, reproductive health, disease transmission and prevention, sanitation and hygiene practices, just to name a few. At the end of their training, the CHWs receive supplies and materials to begin serving their community. These volunteers are certified and recognized by the Honduras Ministry of Health as local health promoters. By educating local community volunteers, we are not only promoting a consistent level of healthcare but also community leadership, which has proven to be very beneficial in the communities.
This June, we are inviting students to be a part of this program through an externship opportunity. This externship program will allow students to become immersed in the program, working alongside the program lead and coordinators to facilitate program development. Externs will become familiar with program operations, will assist in the administering of the educational trainings, will become versed in the holistic vision of Global Brigades through their participation in pilots of other disciplines (i.e. Public Health Brigades, Medical Brigades, Water Brigades, etc), and will see what it takes to perpetuate our programs toward sustainability. Externs will be able to connect with our CHWs and their patients through regular interactions and will be able to learn about their daily responsibilities in being a part of this program.
To cover living costs, insurance, transportation costs, and other expenses of the internship, we are asking each intern to contribute $2,500 for the month. Any surplus funds will be distributed to support year-round supplementary programs voted on by campus chairpersons.
For those interested, please see the application information below. We are excited to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Community Health Workers program team
