A man asks questions at a CSG meeting

In villages in the program area, a CSG member is responsible for 30 households. Members are chosen by the villagers, and need to be literate, committed to social activities and preferably young. CSG members are given appropriate training and are then able to identify those at risk and refer them to the rural health center (RHC) if needed.

CSG members at Nabet RHC responding to questions

Field Trip

From 3rd to 8th June, during a monitoring mission to Myanmar, Tomoko Fukuda, Program Officer, JOICFP, visited RHCs and other health facilities in townships in Saigang and Mandalay Divisions to interview CSG members. Fukuda analyzed their reasons for volunteering and asked them about their awareness of the local health situation.

In Myanmar society, assisting others is highly regarded and is seen as 'gaining merit'. Accordingly, some CSG members were willing to volunteer in community activities. Other reasons given were awareness of the lack of health knowledge in the village, and a desire to further RHC activities.

CSG members gather for a meeting at Belin Sub-center

One CSG member said he was aware of a village woman with AIDS and he would have liked to have been able to help her. He said that health education was very important, especially for young people. Another CSG member said that two young men, both truck drivers, had died of AIDS in the last year. They had not sought treatment, believing there to be none. While antiretroviral drugs may not have been available, they could at least have received some treatment for the symptoms if there had been someone to assist them, he said, as well as receive information to stop the spread of the disease. Other volunteers spoke about maternal death during delivery and ways to help prevent it.

CSG members spoke about the recognition they gain from the community for their health knowledge, which also motivates them. CSG volunteers are able to give advice to pregnant women, and talk about birth spacing and contraception to help prevent abortion and unwanted pregnancy, especially before marriage.

Future challenges

Further methods that are being considered to maintain the motivation of CSG volunteers are monthly support meetings, other ways to deliver public recognition, and involvement in other areas such as tuberculosis prevention.