Ko Kyaw Kyaw Myint, a volunteer from the Myanmar Health Assistant's Association's (MHAA) TB project in Tharzi Township remembered his experience during community field visits.
"During our routine visit to the villages, we assured the TB suspected patients not to worry about having their sputum sent to the lab and finding out that they had TB, as we were there to give them all needed help.
In June 2011, MHAA in partnership with MMA organized a series of three-day training sessions in project townships for volunteers from the community. The trainings included role-play, presentation and practical demonstration on sputum collection.
When we traced a suspected patient, we devoted our time to counselling for sputum check, disseminating knowledge to family members and neighbours, actually sending the sputum cups ourselves to the lab, regularly collecting drugs for the patient, drug administration, and routine home visits to monitor the patient's progress until they are recovered. This reassured the patients and they had more confidence in us and in our project, which has contributed towards higher case detection rate."
During a routine home visit for sputum re-check, Ko Han Minn Htun, 23 years old and now after two months on anti-TB treatment, welcomed the volunteers from MHAA with a big smile and told how much he thanked them.
"I do not want people to suffer like me. I hope that the programme becomes more successful and can expand more to reach more people. The staff and volunteers treat us with empathy, warmth and caring, which brings back hope to the lives of many patients and family members depending on them. I am educated up to 10th Standard and I am the sole breadwinner for a family of four with two siblings and a widowed mother. I am convinced that the TB project supported by Global Fund brought a great benefit to the people of Tharzi and in the future,Tharzi will become a healthy TB-free town. I wish that many more towns in Myanmar will be TB-free towns with expansion of the TB project supported by Global Fund in Myanmar to reach more areas."
Project staff from MHAA, consisting of community facilitators and volunteers, regularly carry out routine field visits. Travelling by car from Mahlaing Township takes about two hours along a dusty winding road to reach Let Pan Zaut village under Yay Ni Group, Yay Htwel Rural Health sub-centre under Kyauk Tan Station Hospital.
Khin Pyone Oo, a volunteer in the Global Fund supported TB project in Mahlaing Township, also shared her experience as a volunteer raising awareness for TB in the community and tracing and referring TB suspect patients for sputum check-up to the hospital.
"After volunteers training, field teams consisting of community facilitators and volunteers usually go on field visits to the village communities. As part of the awareness raising on TB prevention, they give health talks to the villagers. After the TB project funded by Global Fund started, we noticed more people from Mahlaing Township came for sputum check-up and participated more in the TB prevention effort. We feel motivated and are very satisfied with this achievement and we gain more self-confidence in the overall TB prevention effort by MHAA projects supported by the Global Fund."
As the MHAA "Stop TB, Fight TB Together Project" executed by UNOPS and supported by the Global Fund accelerates and expands the TB prevention and control activities in the three project townships of Meiktilar, Mahlaing and Tharzi, local economies will be recovered with improved quality of life and better opportunities for local people to obtain social services.
