President Peter Mutharika has approved October 9 as the National Community Health Day in Malawi.

Secretary for Health and Population Dr Dan Namarika confirmed the development to YFM and said community health workers in the country play a crucial role in providing health care in communities therefore it is important to recognize them.

“For us to ensure that there is impact on our interventions we need to have accountability systems at community level”.

“Our front line health care workers are community health workers and they are crucial in ensuring that services are provided at community level.”

Namarika said asides the provision of health care, they also assist government to reduce the per capita expenditure on health.

“If you look at the per capita expenditure in health, one would say that Malawi spends very little on health care, 39 or  42 dollars versus 100 plus dollars if it were not for community health workers.”

Internationally Malawi is admired for the community health program it is implementing for the country,Namarika added.