Ep17 - A movement to professionalize community health volunteers

In this episode I chat with Margaret Odera. She is a veteran community health volunteer (CHV) that has spent her career serving the needs of the vulnerable in Nairobi's informal settlements.  Margaret shares a heartbreaking but inspiring story about how she rose from the ashes of being diagnosed with HIV to dedicating her life to saving poor mothers and babies who are also living with the disease. Although she is not necessarily a technology or digital health innovator, I invited her to be a guest on the show for two related reasons. First, CHVs like Margaret often play an integral role in the implementation and scaling of digital health innovations in underserved communities. Therefore, it is important to highlight their value-add and needs. Second, Margaret is leading what seems to be a really important movement to professionalize and compensate CHVs. I believe her movement will ultimately contribute to strengthening community health structures to the benefit of the digital health ecosystem in Kenya and possibly across Africa. 
Special thanks to Amie Vaccaro, Global Marketing Director at Dimagi for connecting me with Margaret. Shout out to my daughters Zira (3) and Ada (6) for doing the intro and outro respectively of this episode :)
If you have any thoughts on this episode, or recommendations of African health innovators that you’d like me to host on the show, please reach out to me directly on Twitter @DrSam_Oti, email: sam.oti@alumni.harvard.edu or via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-oji-oti.  Please note that The MedxTek Africa Podcast is distinct from Dr. Oti's role as a Senior Program Specialist at Canada's International Development Research Centre. The information provided in this podcast is not medical advice, nor should it be construed or applied as a replacement for medical advice. The MedxTek Africa Podcast, its production team, guests and partners assume no liability for the application of the podcast's content.