Building Community Leadership Skills

The knowledge and skills involved in managing or steering community health resources is not something which is currently common in the local communities around LAMB.

As such, LAMB is actively involved in training and developing informal leaders, gathered in variously named ‘Community Clinic Management Committees’ or ‘[Union name] Social Development Foundations’.  These groups of leaders take great interest in the health situation of these communities, as well as the status and strength of the local health system.  Through their participation, they gain sufficient knowledge and practical skills to take on supervisory roles in their communities for activities related to health.

Training includes for example primary health and health system understanding, financial management, skilled staff recruitment and management, reporting, and relationship management with the Government and other bodies.

Meetings begin with reports of income and expense balance sheet for the past month followed by the number of deliveries in the area over the previous month, and what proportion were born in the Safe Delivery Unit.  These 2 data points reinforce the two key goals of the leadership skill development work of LAMB:  sustainability of resources as well as outcomes.