“I am proud to be a village health volunteer and support my community”
Dangtoi Thongphaphumbaworn a village health volunteer and Malaria Post (MP) worker lives in Bo Aung village, Pilok, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. He supports all the health and malaria activities in the community including ALIGHT activities. Dangtoi can speak Thai, Karen, Dawei, and a little bit of Lao as the villagers in his community are mix ethnic backgrounds. His village is located in the middle of Vajiralongkorn reservoir. Traveling to his community from the main pier requires a 45 minutes longtail boat ride from the mainland. He made his home as a Malaria Post and service point. Villagers know him well and his services therefore they come to him whenever they need counseling and malaria services.
He has received microscope training from VBDU, so he is able to proceed with the malaria diagnostics in his house, taking care of patient medication and follow up their adherence. His home became a one stop service center for the villagers who live in remote areas, due to the fact that the closest health promotion centers require both time and financial resources to access.
“Everyday when I wake up in the morning I prepare for the services. When villagers have malaria symptoms they come to me, I can do blood tests and diagnosis so we can find out immediately if it is malaria or not”, Dangtoi said.
He travels to the mainland once a month for his personal business and to collect supplies, such as microscope slides, medicines for malaria and other household first aid items.
“The most difficult thing that villagers facing is the remoteness, not just for malaria but flu and other illnesses. It costs a lot to travel to the mainland for health services if anyone is in a serious condition.”
He saidม villagers cannot spend 1,500 bath on the boat every time we need to go mainland for health services. Being able to diagnose and treat malaria from inside the village gives us relief as it reduces the expenses.”
“I am always proud to have this worle and support my villagers, and also eliminate malaria from my area.”
Dangtoi Thongphaphumbaworn, MP/THV
