Miyingo Prossie is a CHW supported by Living Goods in Busimbi village, the Mityana district in Uganda.
Why did you become a CHW?
It was painful to see some children falling sick just because of poor hygiene and lack of right information about the prevention. Seeing pregnant mothers who don’t know why they should attend antenatal care, and immunization for infants. Those things forced me to work as a CHW in my community. Now they know why they should take their kids to be immunized. Since I began no child nor woman has died during giving birth.
How did you become a CHW?
I learned with the Living Goods organization. They took me on a 3-week training course. At the end they tested us to see if we learned the right things.
What is a typical day like for you?
I have a worker plan and every morning before I go to work, I have to look through my worker plan. After looking through my worker plan, I pack my bag with the medicine I need, then I start walking. I do not take transportation; I walk because my patients are nearby.
What has it been like working as a CHW during COVID-19?
As this pandemic started, we were told to stop testing for malaria and giving family planning, but now they have added that back and this is good because people were waiting for this.
[But] the challenge is that they’ve stopped us from moving door to door because of COVID-19. When this pandemic just started, we didn’t have any PPE so I couldn’t go to see some patients. Those patients called me, and I directed them to medical facilities.
Now, the patients who need my services find me at my home. For those who are not able to come to me, I go to them. There are some people who come to me, but there are those who do not want to come. [Or] there are those who are too old to come to me. So, I put on my mask and go to them because I cannot just leave them like that.
Prossie’s story was featured in a UN Africa Renewal article. Read more here.