title: Practice points in utilizing local volunteers in community health projects.
abstract: Community volunteers are recruited for many health intervention projects. There are various motivations for the use of the volunteers and these include: the desire to reduce financial costs of projects/programmes; to encourage community ownership; ensure long-term sustainability of the health intervention; and to empower local communities through training offered the project. Health intervention measures working with community volunteers should not be implemented without due consideration of issues regarding mobilization and engagement, skills and motivation of the volunteers and their effectiveness and efficiency towards the attainment of the project goals. This paper discusses some tips that should be considered when community volunteers are used in resource-limited situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University of Malawi College of Medicine, Private Bag 360, Blantyre 3, Malawi. a-uula@commhealth.medcol.mw
authors.forename: Adamson S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Muula
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Theu
authors.forename: Jan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hofman
mesh_terms: D003153:Community Health Services; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D008295:Malawi; D014837:Voluntary Health Agencies; D014838:Volunteers; D000078329:Workforce