By Sarah Kakakhel, Save the Children Pakistan
You keep hearing about the importance of truly understanding the social and cultural nuances of the area that you work in. For the most part, a lot of us do keep that in mind when we go about our business. But what does it mean when your considerations of an area are quite literally a matter of life and death?
Lady Health Workers (LHWs) have been making headlines in the Pakistani media in the recent past, primarily highlighting the dangers of their duty. I had heard of them and read about them here and there, however, I had never had the opportunity to meet with them.
That all changed when I was invited to be a part of the EVERY ONE Campaign’s award ceremony, honoring Lady Health Workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I walked into the conference room which was abuzz with people, the majority of them women. That automatically made me walk straighter, after all, we women are frequently under-represented on such platforms.
I went and got seated, looking around, hoping to strike a conversation with some of the ladies. Strong communication skills are definitely one of their strengths, as was evident as they started to introduce themselves and ask about me within minutes of me having sat next to them.
The LHWs initiative began in the mid 1990s and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of these women had been working as LHWs since day one. The noteworthy thing about these women is that they have an influence in their communities that impacts the lives of hundreds of families. Each LHW is allotted a certain geographic location and is responsible for visiting the families that live there. On an average day, they will visit 5-7 families. When I asked if they could visit more than that, one of them said, “You should never rush any of the people you visit. They don’t like it. Half of the women are in the middle of their chores when I go visit. I wait for her to finish before she comes to me.”
Patience - something that these LHWs need a lot of.
From my conversation with these ladies, I gathered that the most important aspect of their work was that these LHWs are the first point of contact for a family. In a large city, that may not mean much, but most of them work in remote, far flung areas with no formal medical facility in sight. Having established a relationship with their assigned families, the messages that these women communicate can make the difference between life and death for a child or mother. The best part is, the women don’t have to leave their houses, something that is often a cause for concern in the more conservative parts of the country, the reason why they do not get medical assistance when they truly need it.
Having worked in the same area for years, these families have begun to depend on the advice of the LHWs in their daily lives. It’s the small things, the kind of food to give your baby, reminders about vaccinations, using mosquito nets, how to ensure you keep your child warm to prevent pneumonia and so on that the LHWs address. What we sometimes forget is that a lot of the information that we take for granted is not second nature to a large segment of the population of the women of Pakistan. Ironically enough, it is the basic information that is the most easily practiced with little or no extra cost if only they know about it.
At the risk of sounding cliché, I have to admit, I was proud of these women. I was proud of the dedication they showed towards their work, the work that they do with hardly any acknowledgement or recognition. These are the women who brave all adversity, having been threatened, attacked and warned, who still continue to work to help make the lives of thousands of families better. It is these very lady health workers that strive to change the status quo, the mindset of households who often have very little education, if at all, to help them take better care of themselves and their children.
Social and cultural norms are respected even while the LHWs do their work. And it’s working.
Today, LHWs from various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received an award to honour and recognize their contributions to their communities and Pakistan as a whole. A proud moment for them, but an even prouder one for me - I may have clapped the loudest for each of them!