Nepal’s Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) have been awarded the first Public Health Champion Award by the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region committee.
This award honours the organisation’s decades-long efforts to save lives and improve access to healthcare in remote communities.
The recognition champions Nepal’s FCHV community-based model as a paradigm of a low-cost, high-impact healthcare delivery system in the international scene.
Making healthcare accessible to all
WHO, in a statement released on September 23, commended FCHVs for being the backbone of Nepal’s public health system over the past three decades.
“Even in the country’s most geographically and socially challenged regions, FCHVs have helped improve maternal and child health, increase immunisation coverage, promote nutrition and manage disease outbreaks,” the WHO South-East Asia Region stated in a Facebook post.
This achievement would not have been possible without the voluntary service of over 52,000 women in towns and villages across the country.
The volunteers have been the first point of contact for millions of people.
They assist local health institutions with various tasks, including immunisation coverage, nutrition counselling for mothers and managing illness outbreaks.
Their access to Nepal’s most distant communities has brought essential health services to areas far beyond the reach of formal medical institutions.
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Public health advocates, innovators recognised
WHO also honoured two Indian public health champions for their contribution to South Asia’s healthcare.
Dr Satendra Singh, a physician and disability rights activist, received recognition for fighting for disability inclusion in the health system and medical institutions.
Singh has promoted significant changes in policies and practices by redefining disability as a human rights issue.
India’s LEPRA Society also won an award for its pioneering work in leprosy prevention and care since 1989.
WHO acknowledged the organisation for creating programmes, such as customised footwear, to prevent ulcers.
The organisation currently works in over 100 districts and nine states in India.
They work on cases that include COVID-19, HIV, lymphatic filariasis and tuberculosis, among others.
WHO established the Public Health Champion Award in June this year to recognise individuals and organisations whose contributions have made a lasting impact on public health sectors in their communities.
Participants include Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Thailand.
The winners will be presented at the 78th session of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Committee in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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Hazel Camba 
Shameeka Voyiya 
Newsjustnews writers