Health Volunteers Conduct Mass Wellness Checks for Children

Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) across Kenya are intensifying their outreach, focusing on mass wellness checks for children to catch illnesses early and improve preventive care. CHVs make regular home visits and screen children for common conditions like malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections.
Thanks to digitization efforts, many volunteers now use smartphones loaded with the Ministry of Health’s electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS). These devices help CHVs track immunization schedules, monitor child growth, and flag any health concerns for referral.
In remote and underserved areas, CHVs are also screening for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in children under their care. Their training includes assessing risk factors for conditions like hypertension and diabetes, and referring at-risk children to health facilities.
Nutrition is another key focus: in counties like Isiolo and Turkana, CHVs use mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) tapes to identify and follow up on cases of acute malnutrition among children, ensuring early treatment and referral.