| Auxiliary Health Workers |
Salaried and full-time; pre-service training lasting one or more years (in a specialized training institution); not necessarily recruited from the area. May be hired through some unit of local government or through national civil service structure. |
These workers often provide routine clinical preventive services (e.g., immunizations, FP), as well as case management, for a limited range of conditions (e.g., childhood illness). These functions may be provided from a very peripheral health unit (e.g., a health post) or, at least in part, from outreach sites. |
| Health Extension Workers (HEWs) |
Salaried and expected to work more or less full-time; initial training generally at least several months (usually provided after recruitment); in some cases, this can be for up to a year. Usually recruited from the area, but may or may not originate in the community where they are serving. |
This is the highest level of cadre that is commonly referred to as a CHW, though they may also be considered a type of AHW. Their functions may be very similar to those described above for AHWs. |
| Community Health Volunteers-Regular (CHVs-R) |
Volunteer with certain regular duties (usually with at least some activity every week); possibly with regular episodes of short training (up to several days at a time) and may have some initial training lasting several weeks. They are from and live within their local communities. |
May be involved in case management of childhood illness and in dispensing (e.g., birth control pills, condoms, and antenatal iron). In rare cases, may give injectable contraceptives, such as Depo-Provera or other injections. In some programs, duties and terms of service of CHVs-R start to approach those of HEWs (see above), with significant t part-time involvement (e.g., 10–20 hours/week) and financial incentives representing an important source of revenue. These may be performance- or commission-based. In other programs, though these CHVs perform regular functions, they normally put in less time (e.g., 5 hours/week or less) and financial incentives may be minimal or not used at all. |
| Community Health Volunteers-Intermittent (CHVs-I) |
Volunteer, relatively light, intermittent commitment; minimal orientation/training; may be numerous; local. |
Typically have functions limited to health promotion, though they may also support periodic campaign activities (e.g., distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, ivermectin, or vitamin A) and support for immunization campaigns. |
