Difficulties after the reorganization of population collaborators in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - From 2021, village and hamlet health workers will also take on the additional task of grassroots population collaborators. This will also cause disruptions in the industry's operations and will certainly have initial difficulties.
Reorganize the machine
In mid-January, the population work of Nghia Loc commune (Nghia Dan) became more difficult when 13/21 population collaborators of the commune quit their jobs. Instead, the medical staff of the villages and hamlets took on the additional work of population collaborators.
As one of the collaborators who has been working for the Population Department for a long time, Ms. Hoang Thi Huong in Thuan Loc hamlet was not surprised by this change. However, as someone who is considered capable, dedicated and responsible, she was quite sad to have to say goodbye to the job she had been familiar with for many years.
People who have been active for many yearspopulationAt the grassroots level, there are also concerns that the initial change of responsible staff will disrupt activities in villages and hamlets, especially since this is a special job that requires diligence, listening, and understanding.
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| People of Nghia Loc commune (Nghia Dan) learn about population policy. Photo: PV |
Nghia Loc is a special commune of Nghia Dan district, with many Catholic hamlets. Currently, compared to other communes and towns, Nghia Loc commune is still one of the localities with the highest rate ofthird childhigh, of which, in 2020 alone, it was over 42%.
Over the years, the population collaborators here have truly been the ones “going to every alley, knocking on every door, checking every subject” and have contributed significantly to the change and raising people’s awareness of population work. In addition, thanks to the arrangement of the collaborators to also act as the head of the women’s association, the work efficiency has been doubled and propaganda and mobilization have been integrated into many other activities.
In the whole Nghia Dan district, up to this point, the consolidation of the population collaborator apparatus in 189 hamlets and 22 communes has been completed and basically all collaborators have been replaced.
“If village and hamlet health workers are also grassroots population collaborators, there will be many advantages because this field requires medical knowledge, especially in consulting and communicating about reproductive health issues.
However, there are also initial difficulties, because these are people who have no experience in population communication and are not familiar with the work. If the population collaborator is male, the implementation of the work will be even more limited, because this is a job that requires perseverance, diligence and meticulousness, and understanding the psychology and circumstances of the subjects.
Dien Ky is also a special commune of Dien Chau district, so the role of the population workers is very important. Previously, although she was the Party cell secretary in the block and hamlet, Ms. Hoang Thi Bich Thuy was still trusted by the people to be elected as an additional population worker and worked effectively. According to her, to gain the trust and follow of the people, a population worker must be a role model, speak with reason and emotion, and understand the wishes and thoughts of the people. Besides, they must be persistent, hard-working and not afraid of hardship.
Currently, when not taking on this job, she is afraid that new people, especially men or those too young, will have difficulty communicating and do not have the experience to convince people to implement population policies.
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| Population collaborators of Dien Ky commune (Dien Chau) come to consult households. Photo: MH |
Ms. Tran Thi Quy - a population officer of Dien Ky commune also said: "The current population collaborator team after the commune's structure has 2 people who are men and over 60 years old, some are very young and have never done population work before, so it takes a while to get used to the job."
Continue to train and improve capacity
From January 1, 2021, implementing Resolution No. 15/2020/NQ - Provincial People's Council on regulating a number of population policies, the team of population collaborators in villages, hamlets and communes in Nghe An will be reorganized. Specifically, for hamlets and communes, only one person will be assigned to work as a hamlet health worker, who will concurrently take on population work in the hamlet or commune; for blocks belonging to wards and towns, only one person will be assigned to work as a block population collaborator, concurrently taking on block health work.
Following the instructions of the Department of Health, the rearrangement of the population collaborator team has been carried out quite urgently and has been basically completed at this point.
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| Over the past years, the grassroots population collaborators have actively "gone to every alley, knocked on every door, and checked every subject". Photo: PV. |
In Thanh Chuong district, the district used to have more than 500 population collaborators. However, after the merger, the district only had 228 villages and hamlets left and the collaborators had basically replaced the entire team. Immediately after the reorganization, Thanh Chuong district also developed a plan to organize training for the village and hamlet health workers who were also population collaborators.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Thanh - Deputy Head of the Population Department, Thanh Chuong District Health Center said: After 3 years of implementing Resolution 21 on population work, the third child birth rate in Thanh Chuong district still increased from 19.4% to 25.2%.
This, in addition to objective reasons, is partly due to the fact that in the past, the population work apparatus was unstable and investment in population work was low. Therefore, in the coming time, when the entire grassroots apparatus is changed, population work will be more difficult because currently the scale of villages is large, the population is large but there is only one person in charge (instead of 2-3 people as before). Not to mention that the current population collaborators are quite a lot of men, old, and have no experience in propaganda and mobilization.
Previously, population collaborators were considered a “grassroots” system, closely following the area and the target. At the same time, because this team is often associated with the head of the women’s association and the association’s work, coordination activities will be more effective and practical.
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| Thanh Chuong presents gifts to collaborators who have been involved in population work for many years. Photo: PV |
From this reality, Ms. Nguyen Hoai Thu - Head of Population Department, Nghia Dan District Health Center added: Currently, the population work of Nghia Dan district has many limitations such as the continued increase in the third child birth rate (although lower than other localities), the gender imbalance rate is very high (117 boys / 100 girls), the rate of early marriage is increasing and there are more and more cadres and party members violating population policy.
In that situation, changing the team of collaborators at the grassroots level will create a "gap" and it will take some time to maintain operations. Given this reality, we are reviewing and planning to advise local authorities to create conditions for experienced and young collaborators to receive further training in health, in order to build them up to continue to become the core to improve the efficiency of operations at the grassroots level.
To improve the effectiveness of population collaborators at the grassroots level, the role of the leader and advisor is very important. “We will continue to organize many training sessions to improve the qualifications and propaganda skills of the population collaborators who are also village and commune health workers. As for the population collaborators in the blocks of wards and towns who do not have a medical certificate, they will be reviewed to be sent to study additional medical expertise (at least elementary level) to ensure that by June 30, 2022, they will be qualified to perform medical tasks at the block.”