Something we at RDP have been batting around the last year or so is the issue of payment for health workers. As we embark upon our first official VHW training program, we will not be providing the new trainees with a monthly stipend. At this time the funds are not available and the job description not yet formed to the point where scheduled reimbursement is possible.
Other health worker programs, like the Accompagnateur program of Partners In Health, pay their health workers between 30 and 60 dollars per month. These health workers are involved in tasks as involved as supervising patient medication administration twice daily for a panel of up to 10 or 20 patients. It truly can be a full time job. At this stage in our program there will not be this direct patient oversight and the time commitment will be far less.
We envision, however, that in the near future health worker payments will be necessary. Indeed they are an important piece in legitimizing the work both in the eyes of the health worker and the villages they will be returning to. Additionally, as Paul Farmer states:
Training and paying village health workers creates jobs among the very poorest.
We hope to be able to compensate our health workers as the funds become available and as the job description sharpens in the coming year or two.
