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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Access and Barriers to Reproductive Health Services
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2024.1491093

Challenges faced by community health volunteers in offering sexual and reproductive health care services to young women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Khwisero and Nairobi in Kenya

Provisionally accepted
Mariam Florence Yusuf Mariam Florence Yusuf 1,2,3*Washington Onyango Ouma Washington Onyango Ouma 1Jacinta Victoria S. Muinde Jacinta Victoria S. Muinde 2Cynthia Khamala Wangamati Cynthia Khamala Wangamati 2
  • 1 Anthropology, Gender and Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
  • 2 Community medicine and global health, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 3 sociology and Anthropology, Maseno University, Maseno, Kisumu, Kenya

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Community health volunteers (CHVs) are fundamental in many health systems across the globe. In Kenya, CHVs were essential in providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study highlights challenges experienced by community health volunteers in Kenya while providing SRH services during the COVID-19 pandemic.The study utilized a qualitative research design to explore challenges experienced by CHVs in offering SRH services in Dagoretti North and South sub-counties in Nairobi and Khwisero sub-county in western Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic period. We conducted 17 in-depth interviews, 7 focus group discussions, and 1 group discussion with CHVs. The data was collected in different periods: in Khwisero, Nov 2022-Aug 2023, and in Nairobi, Feb-April 2023.Results: The study's findings show that CHVs experienced several challenges while providing SRH services. The challenges included distrust by the community as a result of the interaction between anti-COVID-19 measures and other past and present health interventions such as vaccines for other diseases, insufficient personal protective gear and equipment (PPEs), limited human and financial resources to address community needs, limited and poor training on response to misinformation that led to vaccine hesitancy, and mental strain from stigma and burnout.During pandemics, governments should provide adequate personal protective gear and financial and human resources for CHVs' work as they deliver SRH services to the community under risky conditions. In addition, CHVs must be trained to address misinformation about relevant medical interventions during epidemics and pandemics and provided with psychosocial support to mitigate the impact of psychological distress.

    Keywords: Sexual reproductive health services, community health volunteers, COVID-19, Challenges, Epidemics and pandemics

    Received: 04 Sep 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yusuf, Ouma, Muinde and Wangamati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mariam Florence Yusuf, Anthropology, Gender and Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.