BRAC Community Health Worker Programme

A community health worker program run by the Bangladeshi development organization BRAC, which shifted in the early 1980s from an earlier male paramedic model adapted from China's barefoot doctor approach to training women as Shasthya Shebikas, volunteer health workers who now number more than 100,000 across the country. Candidates must be married women aged 25 to 35 with no children under five and community backing, and after three weeks of training at a local BRAC office they provide family planning counseling, pregnancy identification, treatment for minor ailments, tuberculosis case finding and directly observed TB therapy, basic sanitation and hygiene education, eye care and record keeping. Shasthya Shebikas receive no salary, instead earning small profits from selling BRAC health products and incentive payments tied to specific services, and each is supervised by one of BRAC's paid Shasthya Kormi staff, who oversee eight to ten volunteers apiece.