PAHO/WHO has recently trained more than 2 800 community health workers including 2 700 community health agents, and 162 community health nurses and auxiliary nurses as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To combat misinformation, PAHO has also conducted meetings with community leaders including voodoo priests, catholic priests, pastors, and traditional birth attendants. to provide them with accurate messages about COVID-19.
The community health workers were also equipped with 221 megaphones and batteries for communication support; as well as personal protective equipment (PPE) such as ., gloves, face masks and hand sanitizer. PAHO’s outreach in Haiti has gone a long way to achieve exposure to the country’s hard-to-reach communities and those who believe in traditional medicine.
Training and equipment are part of PAHO’s extensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Haiti, which focuses on surveillance, laboratory improvement, case management, and risk communication to engage with communities and provide information about the disease.
PAHO, in coordination with International Organization for Migration, has also supported local authorities to set up COVID-19 border surveillance. The organizations’ efforts help assure detection and testing of suspected symptomatic cases, and quarantine facilities for suspected cases at the ports of entry on the border with the Dominican Republic, training their staff and providing medical supplies and protective equipment.