When community health work is treated as voluntary labor, it shapes who ends up doing it. As CHW Blanca Flor Rosales Borrego of Peru’s Ministry of Health observes, many men believe unpaid work isn’t worth doing. The result: women often carry the responsibility for community health.
Too often, the responsibility for community health falls on women.
CHW Kapinga Rebecca of the DRC MOH describes a reality seen in many communities: women are expected to carry the work of community health yet the work continues with limited resources, training, equipment, and recognition.
Peru just awarded its highest recognition for advancing women’s equality to a CHW, Carmen Rosa Vilela Vargas.
Yet the workforce she represents still lacks formal recognition.
Across the movement, CHWs like Carmen are advocating to turn recognition into the policies their work demands.
For #IWD2026, Margaret Odera, a lead CHW and advocate from Kenya, shares a simple truth: many women stepped into community health work even when education systems didn’t create pathways for them.
They’re still showing up. It’s time to pay and support the workforce behind community health.
“This is a call for change. Enough of volunteer work.” Carmen Vilela Vargas, CHW from Peru.
As we mark #IWD2026, her message reflects a reality across global health: millions of women continue to work unpaid or underpaid in CHW roles.
“Recognizing our work is not an expense. It is an investment.”
Too often, decisions about CHWs happen without CHWs in the room.
As CHW Aboubakare Djariyétou of Togo’s MOH reminds us: realizing health as a human right requires CHWs advocating with leaders to remove financial barriers to care.
More about CHW Advocates ➡️ joinchic.org/resources/chw-...
Declaring health a human right is the easy part.
Delivering it is harder.
As Aaron Jameni, a CHW with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, notes, realizing that right requires strong primary care and proCHWs.
As #IWD approaches, conversations are sharping around gender. Beyond celebration lies a hard question: who carries the cost of care?
In our March newsletter, we unpack the gendered economics of community health and the shift from unpaid labor to professional status➡️ https://sbee.link/ktanxj4m96
Once standards are clear, expectations shift. WHO’s Global Curriculum Guide sets a baseline for what CHWs need to deliver safe, effective care—and what systems must put in place to support them.
Policy and financing now need to keep pace. 🔗 https://sbee.link/vxqnhdpm4w
Liberia reduced the cost of treating NTDs by up to tenfold. How?
Integrated community health worker programs.
When CHWs are salaried and trained to deliver care across conditions, they don’t just match alternative delivery models. They outperform them.
→ sbee.link/v63gqwp9fh
CHIC is hiring a Director of Development to build and lead a bold, scalable fundraising function.
Remote. $127–167k (Cost of Living Adjusted).
Benefits: medical (incl. child coverage), 16 wks paid leave, 401k match + more.
Apply by March 15: sbee.link/gy7nvqe9mt
When health budgets tighten, “cost-effective” is only part of the story.
In a special edition of CHIC's Research Roundup we unpack findings of five new scoping reviews from 10 years of research on the costs, cost-effectiveness, and affordability of CHW programs.
➡️ lnkd.in/epiaMchQ
Reaching children who still miss lifesaving vaccines requires stronger immunization systems — and strong immunization systems rely on CHWs.
A new op-ed from @lastmilehealth.bsky.social + @villagereach.bsky.social explores their role in immunization, surveillance, and trust: bit.ly/4rClDGQ
As budgets tighten and risks rise, countries face hard choices about what to protect.
In a TIME op-ed, Madeleine Ballard and Davidson Polyte argue that investing in professional community health workers is one of the clearest ways to safeguard care and health security.
time.com/7336627/comm...
A strong and lasting health system pays and equips its frontline workforce.
In Kenya & Mozambique, governments are integrating and financing community health workers as core health infrastructure—building delivery capacity that holds even under pressure.
Explore why: sbee.link/ce8rvnx4tg
At the 4th CHW Symposium, 60+ countries issued the Bangkok Call to Action—a renewed global commitment to professional CHWs.
In a time of converging crises, CHWs deliver care, build trust & advance equity: sbee.link/v7x4jhy6qe
#CHWSymposium2025 #CHWsWork #GlobalHealth #HealthForAll
As global health becomes more fragmented, health systems are being tested by what actually works under pressure.
Countries that invest in paid, supported community health workers are building resilience into care delivery.
➡️ sbee.link/acwmhfe4vp
📹Here’s what it looks like when a CHW is in the room: Millicent Miruka, a CHW with Lwala Community Alliance, speaking directly with the CEO of Gavi the Vaccine Alliance about why governments must formally recognize CHWs.
As global meetings pick up in 2026, it’s worth asking early: who’s in the room? If CHWs are part of the conversation, their voices should be too.
CHIC’s CHW Speaker Bureau helps organizers include CHWs as speakers and contributors.
Get to know the speakers: sbee.link/ych6kv8xdm
Over 1B people are affected by NTDs, yet the economics of the CHW programs delivering NTD care remain underexamined.
A new scoping review looks at what the evidence does — and doesn’t — tell governments about sustaining NTD care: sbee.link/n6acq7fx94
As we mark #WorldNTDDay
NTD prevention and treatment depend on what happens before a case reaches a facility.
For CHW Mildred Adhiambo Major, it starts with trust and linking communities to care.
This work lasts only when CHWs are trained, resourced, and compensated as part of the health system.
Ahead of #WorldNTDDay, CHW Keleou Kilim Dieudonné shares what NTD elimination requires: not pilots or individual effort, but systems that sustain community health—formal recognition, training, logistics, and long-term support.
Community health works when systems work.
When community health is treated as a core part of the health system—financed, supervised, and integrated with primary care—it can save lives at scale.
This month’s Research Roundup explores why. The frontline has kept its promise. Now systems must keep theirs.
➡️ sbee.link/3gmd8renuq
The case for community health is clear. What’s missing is alignment. In The Lancet Primary Care, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf calls for government-led financing to match what the frontline already delivers.
👉 https://sbee.link/kbafynutpe
The Bangkok Call to Action—issued at the 4th International Community Health Worker Symposium—lays out a shared agenda for governments, donors, and partners to secure the future of CHWs.
Read the full Call to Action and join our movement: bit.ly/4bv40Uy
#CHWsWork #proCHWs
How is AI actually showing up in CHW programs today? CHIC has launched a short, anonymous survey to help ensure AI solutions for community health include CHW voices—and lead to ethical, sustainable approaches.
Take the survey by Jan 25: sbee.link/btujvryafd
Nothing about CHWs without CHWs.
Benard Aketch Otieno, Lead CHW from Migori County, Kenya, joins CHIC’s Advisory Board—bringing the perspective needed to make professional CHWs the norm, not the exception.
In our first newsletter of 2026, we're exploring:
✔️Why frontline voices belong in policy + financing spaces
✔️What new economic reviews of integrated CHW programs signal for this year’s budget choices
✔️How CHWs are guiding coalition + movement direction
Read: sbee.link/jdq4hmbtre
At the 4th CHW Symposium, 60+ countries issued the Bangkok Call to Action—a renewed global commitment to professional CHWs.
In a time of converging crises, CHWs deliver care, build trust & advance equity. bit.ly/4bv40Uy
#CHWsWork #proCHWs
How is AI actually showing up in CHW programs today? CHIC has launched a short, anonymous survey to help ensure AI solutions for community health include CHW voices—and lead to ethical, sustainable approaches.
Take the survey by Jan 25: sbee.link/hgwxjrpvnc
