Escucha mi voz: COVID-19 through the eyes of community health workers

By Tina Samsamshariat

These images and accompanying narratives are provided by agentes comunitarios de salud (ACS) or community health workers with the Mamás del Río project, sharing their personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Peruvian Amazon. These photographs were captured as part of my Global Health Equity Scholar/Fogarty research which examined how community health workers expanded their roles to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic within their communities. Informed consent and photo release consent were obtained from all study participants to share their photos.

The Medicine Cabinet without Medicine

"This little box is a community medicine cabinet. In the community, it is the responsibility of the health promoter, and it is mainly for the benefit of the community. As an agent, I feel worried because it is empty. It is like a soldier who goes to war without weapons. You are left with great despair at not being able to provide support. The disease comes and we do not make it alive."

"Our role is not only to treat the patient, it is to support him so that he can reach the health post. Therefore, we must promote communal medicine cabinets with higher authorities. We want training on medicine administration, so that we can be prepared for an emergency in our community."

- ACS

Visiting COVID-19 Patients

"A community health agent is visiting a community member with COVID-19 in the middle of the pandemic. At first I was afraid, but at that time, I would always check on [the patients] to see how they were, if they were getting better, if they were getting worse–that was my job. My will is great. I don't earn a penny; you don't earn any incentive, but I work for my community. There was a danger that some community members would die from COVID-19. For that reason, I had to worry. If they leave [their house] to go visit their neighbor, they will infect them. Thus, in order to avoid that, since I had protection, I would leave."

"I was no longer afraid of death. I supported our patients by preparing their herbal remedies. We can teach our community members to prepare the remedies, and give it to them to drink, so that our community does not fall so hard in the pandemic."

-ACS

Please note that this is a sample Gallery entry as it has been previously published.

Samsamshariat T, Madhivanan P, Reyes Fernández Prada A, Moya EM, Meza G, Reinders S, Blas MM. Hear my voice: understanding how community health workers in the Peruvian Amazon expanded their roles to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through community-based participatory research. BMJ Glob Health. 2023 Oct;8(10):e012727. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012727. PMID: 37832965; PMCID: PMC10583076.