Margaret Odera: Championing Community Health Workers in Kenya

Health workers are the heart of global health security, playing a crucial role in preventing and responding to pandemics, as well as addressing growing threats of other infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and maternal and child health challenges.

In honor of World Health Worker Week, meet Margaret Odera of Kenya, a devoted community health worker (CHW) and mentor mother who has helped hundreds of HIV-positive women in her community deliver and raise children free of HIV.

IntraHealth International, a Global Communities Partner, first met Margaret in 2019. She has since shared her experience as a CHW at more than 25 events, including with global and national policymakers. In 2021, she founded the Community Health Workers Champions Network — the first network in Kenya to unify and mobilize CHWs in the country to advocate for fair pay and professionalization. She is now working on her social work degree and is currently a community health expert for policy/strategy.

Last year, Margaret received the Community Health Champion Award from CORE Group at the Global Health Practitioners Conference. Read her acceptance speech below to learn more about what inspired her to take this path and the vital role CHWs play in the local and global health system.  

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I’m very much honored to be here. I never knew that I would live to see a day like this coming to light. It reminds me of around 20 years ago, when I avoided the services of a CHW, because I had tested HIV-positive, and a pastor chased me out of a church after I had failed to be healed by his prayers. That pastor said to me, “Tuonane mortuary”— Swahili for “See you at the mortuary.”

When I got out of that church, I made up my mind that I was going to wait for my death in my house alone. I disconnected myself from the world, from my family, from everybody, and I waited for my death to come. Suicidal thoughts hovered around my mind.

But there was a CHW who spotted me several times because I looked sick and emaciated. I avoided her completely. And one day I was tired of her following me up and down. I told her, “Get out of my house.” But when she stood at the door, she said, “Margaret, what if God has just delayed your cure? What if God wants to heal your mental health?” And when those words pierced into my soul, I sat down. And she came back and said, “Margaret, you cannot give up. I cannot let you die. I cannot let you give up.” 

And now I’m here 20 years later with three HIV negative sons. And my husband is also HIV negative. What a great work that a CHW did that a doctor couldn’t. They couldn’t handle me because my mindset had to be changed. So that is the power of a CHW. 

I am now a CHW and a mentor mother, mentoring HIV-positive pregnant and lactating mothers. And seeing their children now at a place where they can do their KCPE and their KCSE [Kenyan certificates for primary and secondary education], healthy and HIV negative, is my satisfaction as a mother myself.

I am honored today to stand here, to represent my fellow CHWs, and want to take the opportunity to emphasize the vital role we play in the local and global health system. We are agents of change. By recognizing and including CHWs in planning and execution, we can create more effective public health responses. 

This is now the third time I am standing before you all. The first award I received in 2019 was the USAID award of Mental Mother of the Year. The second one was the Heroine of Health Award in 2022 that fueled my passion for advocating for CHWs, 70% of whom in Kenya are women. Now I am honored to be receiving this third award, sending me to buckle up and continue building the health workforce better. 

I will follow the footsteps of my professor, Wangari Maathai, who says, “Start where people are.” And I am starting again where my community is, and where my fellow CHWs are, to advocate for the rights of the CHW and the community members at large, for equity in distribution of health resources.

And with more new health threats facing the world today, there is no more time to lose. The time for action is now. My life is a proof that CHWs save lives. Let us professionalize CHWs. Let us give CHWs the chance for career progression. Let us pay CHWs fairly. And let us stop the corporate injustice, because 70% are women, and women are natural caregivers. Let us pay these women, and empower us as CHWs to build the health workforce back better. 

This post originally appeared on VITAL, IntraHealth International’s site for news & commentary about the global health workforce.