Rebecca's journey through Village Health Volunteerism

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

April 13th, 2018, Honiara - “I had no idea about Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition until I became a member of World Vision’s volunteer program called Village Health Volunteers that I realised it is a life-changing role. I can confirm to you that the programme has eventually changed my life as I continue to help women in my community, educating and assisting them in terms of Maternal Health and Nutrition,” said 31-year-old Village Health Volunteer, Rebecca Sapara’u of Rara community in East Are’are, South Malaita.

Implemented in four provinces, World Vision’s Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition project aims to improve the health and nutrition of mothers, newborn babies and children under the age of five. 

A key feature of the project is a network of Village Health Volunteers and Village Health Committees established in the project areas. 

With two Village Health Volunteers responsible for each community, they are trained by World Vision to provide basic public health advice, run public health awareness events, household visits, influence health behaviour practices and support health workers with basic growth monitoring assessment and information sharing. Village Health Volunteers are supported by the Village Health Committee who consist of senior community members.

Spending her time as a village health volunteer in Rara community, Rebecca is among 30 volunteers who serve their communities in South Malaita, helping them to live healthy lifestyles. 

Trained by World Vision, Rebecca’s job is to advise pregnant and lactating women and caregivers to maintain healthy living by accessing healthy food varieties and eating a balanced diet especially children within their 1,000 days of life.

“The training I received from World Vision has helped me to pass on the knowledge to women in my community, especially expectant mothers. Also as the winner of a cooking competition held in our community last year, I can teach both women and men how to cook nutritious meals for their families,” Rebecca said with a smile.

Inspired by the fact that people in her community have changed their living standards by eating locally grown, healthy and nutritious food, Rebecca continues to deliver on her role as a village health volunteer and is now well respected for her role in the community.

“Seeing families in our community now changing their diets and eating healthier food is really inspiring. This is my motivation to keep working as a village health volunteer. Through this program, people are now practising healthy living in our community,” she added. 

The project is supported by the Australian Government in Makira, South Malaita and Central Island provinces while UNICEF supported the same in Temotu province.