Women Health Volunteers (WHV) of Iran

In Tehran lowcost basic health care is delivered by women volunteers, which is as tonic for Iran's economy. These Lady Health Workers are part of a vast network, comprising of 100,000 women known as "Women Health Volunteers"(WHV) since 1991 and has been supported by WHO and UNICEF

They help government in spreading the word of health and hygiene. With the help and support of these women, Tehran has been able to show excellent primary care and sanitation results.

To share a few statistics

Vaccination rate is 100%, proper access to clean water , and 80 % of pregnant women are examined 3 times during their pregnancy.

According to Dr. Hossein Malek-Afzali, there has been not a single polio case in Iran for over 8 years.

More over the women participating in the WHVs were simple ladies from neighbourhood trained for a weekin health centers and sent out to educate 50 families, mostly their own and neighbors.

These WHVs have alao been successful in educating the families about various health and hygiene issues needed there such as the importance of use of iodized salt and family planning, bringing birth rate from 6 to 2 children.

These Health workers also test water and inspect hygiene at places like schools, bakeries, hair salons and grocery stores. Although primary and secondary care is available ,but the major challenges that remain are ; provision of surgical and inpatient care, cardiovascular diseases due to polluted air and smoking among men, drug addiction is another major problem.

Source : The TIME , Annual Special Issue [23 March, 2009] [Tehran's Health Patrol]