Community Health Workers for Integrated Nutrition and Health Via Radio in Ghana

Low access to health services lead to child malnutrition in northern Ghana. About 60% of Ghana’s children are anaemic. Northern region has a rate of 82%, exceeding the WHO’s 40% showing severe public health problem. Radio is cheap and popular among most vulnerable communities in African nations. For example, of 365 northern Ghana farmers, 88.5% indicated that they listened to the radio daily, and most residents prefer drama programs . Our Bold idea, based on the health belief model, uses radio messages as cues to positive behaviours in northern region of Ghana. We will use radio to provide behavioral, integrated nutrition and health messages by trained community health workers (CHWS) in northern Ghana through a 30-minute program comprising 10-minute drama, 10-minute panel discussion, and 10-minute phone-in by listeners. Traditional face-to-face methods by CHWs often have logistic challenges, but our idea could prove that if CHWs are trained as radio panelists to discuss relevant drama and lead phone-in segments, they could improve nutrition and increase access to health services to reduce under five mortality. We will cause the project’s viral spread by targeting women groups to aid uptake; use local language; broadcast at relevant times. We will also develop strategic partnerships with nursing schools to integrate media training into curriculum for sustained impact. Our main goal is to reduce under 5 mortality and promote maternal health in northern Ghana.