Photo: WHO/Irmak Alpagut
The Community Health Support Staff (CHSS) project supports the employment of Syrian personnel in the Turkish health sector. It acts as a bridge between homebound patients and Migrant Health Centres by having CHSS on the constant lookout for more complicated health issues that may require intervention by a doctor from the Refugee Health Training Centre.
As part of the programme CHSS can attend trainings on providing home care to the elderly and disabled, which are regularly offered by WHO. This gives employment opportunities to the participants and provides access to primary health care services to the patients.
The programme was launched in WHO’s seven Refugee Health Training Centres in 2018. As of January 2020, 279 CHSS members have been hired and 815 patients have benefited from home care services.
The project is run jointly by the World Health Organization and the Turkish Ministry of Health and funded by the German Government through KfW Development Bank.
“I came to Turkey 5 months ago with my 2 children and my little sister,” says Hibe, a 28-year-old Syrian woman from Eastern Ghouta, Damascus. “I was working there as a midwife. Then, one day, my husband died.” After the loss of her husband, Hibe decided to come to Turkey, leaving her mother and father behind in Damascus.
Once in Turkey, Hibe tried to find a job and learn Turkish, but she had no luck in her search. “One of my sisters lives in Germany. She supports us but it is not enough for us,” she explains. Then a good friend informed her about WHO’s new training programme for the provision of home care to older and disabled Syrians living in Turkey. Hibe joined the training to become a community health support worker helping to reach patients with limited mobility directly in their homes.
“It is a great opportunity for me because I already know how to take care of patients,” she explains. “In the trainings, I even helped my other friends. I love helping people.”
This project is funded by the German Federal Government through KfW Development Bank.