Ma Moh Moh Darli, 21, is a health volunteer who works with Social Care Volunteer Group. They are one of 25 civil society organizations working to identify and overcome barriers to health access as part of the 3MDG Collective Voices initiative.
The focus of Ma Moh Moh Darli’s work is health education and gender equality. In the first stage of the Collective Voices project these factors were identified as key barriers to accessing healthcare, alongside lack of trust in the health system, social norms and poverty.
These issues were identified during more than 500 community meetings conducted by local organizations. In some cases, the organizations trekked very long distances – up to three days – to include the voices of people living in remote villages in Myanmar.
Ma Moh Moh Darli can see how her work contributes to better informed health decisions, and more balance in relationships:
“After the training, everyone understands the issues more. The participants told me that their husbands have made more compromises and have helped their wives more at home.”
Volunteers just like Ma Moh Moh Darli work in five different villages in Magway Region under the leadership of Social Care Volunteer Group (SCVG). Along with health lessons, such as handwashing, they bring people in to the township for treatment if they need it and help organize events.
“The project’s aim is to promote gender equality and the importance of health-seeking behaviour,” SCVG director Ko Nay Win Ko says. Similar programmes are run around the country by many of 3MDG’s civil society and Collective Voices partners.
Recruiting and retaining volunteers, however, can be challenging. The work is unpaid, so volunteers often move on to paid jobs. High turnover can make it difficult to build relationships communities, which is critical to ensuring that health information is trusted and followed.
When volunteers are young, they often have to work harder to build respect. For Ma Moh Moh Darli, she has learnt that the best way to do this is through one-on-one visits. SCVG also tries to teach the volunteers how to build better relationships and organize their own health-related events.
“The idea is to give ownership to the villagers and the volunteers,” says SCVG director Ko Nay Win Ko.
Khant Sithu provides health information in his village.
Volunteer Khant Sithu finds time to volunteer while running a mobile phone repair shop and a print shop in Pho Lay Lone village. If villagers get sick, he takes them to see the village midwife. He also mobilizes people in the community and assists SCVG in organizing health-related community events. One of the biggest benefits of having trained volunteers is that people receive the correct health information, he says.
“There are deep-rooted health beliefs still around. For example, if someone gets worms in their legs, people believe rubbing dirt on it helps. But now I have the knowledge to teach them the right way.”
Villagers have learned to trust and depend on Khant Sithu. Sometimes he drives women to the nearby hospital to give birth. Recently he spotted a 7-year-old with dengue fever - the parents thought it was a normal flu, but he knew the signs and took the family to see the village midwife. Now the child is cured.
The Collective Voices project is financed by 3MDG, a multi-donor fund pooling the contributions of Australia, Denmark, the European Union, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
