Community Health Worker training launched in the Dominican Republic

For immediate release
April 5, 2007

Baní, DR – Community Health workers in the Dominican Republic completed Infante Sano’s first Community Health Worker training on March 22nd. The one-week training on Basic Maternal and Infant Health was given to Dominican health workers who work with Infante Sano and Public Health.

The initial training coordinated by Infante Sano and led by Drs. Karen Sadler and Heather Crouse, worked directly with 36 community health workers. These workers will reach out to their communities around Baní, and will help educate and identify mothers and newborns at risk and refer them to the necessary health center.

The goals of the course were to instruct community health workers to work with pregnant women and new mothers in their communities, and to teach them how to decide which women and babies need more urgent care. Through lectures and role-plays, health workers learned important communication skills, antenatal care to prevent, detect, and treat pregnancy and newborn complications, how to appropriately learn about a woman’s history, how to prevent and treat infection and respiratory difficulties, and more critical skills to help them save mothers and infants from preventable diseases, infections, and premature deaths.

The CHW training was one of five training programs being offered in Baní this year. The Low Birth Weight (link to PR) and Neonatal Resuscitation Trainings have also been completed. Ambulatory Primary care and Management of Perinatal Complications will take place later this year.

Infante Sano is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Children s Hospital in Boston. Its goals are to improve infant and maternal health throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and to disseminate collected information to the international community working on improving neonatal and maternal healthcare practices. Infante Sano partners with existing hospitals and community health clinics to help them implement effective health care guidelines and improve the quality of care they provide to mothers and newborns. Local health care providers are capacitated through training and provision of medical supplies and equipment necessary for quality health care services. For more information visit www.infantesano.org

Press Contact: Christa Thoeresz 617.515.0335 christa@infantesano.org