This Halloween, I'm Introducing a New Superhero. Meet Manju, From Nepal.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could find the one intervention that would solve the health problems facing the world’s most vulnerable children?

One thing. One action or activity. One critical product or service that would make all the difference. The elusive?“silver bullet."

Sadly, it doesn’t exist.?

It isn’t vaccines, as important as they are. It isn’t access to clean water, as essential as that is. It isn’t providing a latrine, malaria bed net or supplies of nutritious foods. The issues affecting the health of children in resource-poor communities are complex and interwoven, so the solutions aren’t simple.

The closest we can come to a silver bullet, I believe, isn’t a thing at all. It is a person. More accurately, a group of people: community health workers employed* around the globe.

Mostly women, community health workers are the frontline of the health system. They are the ones who leave health centers to fan out into communities to listen to, speak to and reach families where health happens — in their homes, neighborhoods, schools and playgrounds.

Community health workers are the most direct line to the most vulnerable children. ?Investing in them is key to improving health and wellbeing among children and making progress on the child-focused Sustainable Development Goals.

That’s why I’m excited about the new Community Health Delivery Partnership launched this month jointly by 联合国儿童基金会 , USAID and the World Health Organization (WHO). The initiative intends to strengthen community-based primary health care with a focus on community health workers. The goal is to reach at least 66 million children and 100 million women annually with improved access to health services.

What we know from years of work and research is that investments in community health programs have a tenfold return through improved health, deaths averted and increased productivity.

This work is carried out primarily by women (75 percent or more) working in underserved and remote areas. They are generally from the communities they serve, which helps them bridge social, gender and cultural norms.??

Despite being highly cost-effective, however, investments in community health programs and workers remain seriously underfunded. It is estimated that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the roughly $2 billion needed to strengthen the community health system could generate over $21 billion in economic benefits, mostly from improvements in productivity and reductions in disease.

By the way, I put an asterisk above the word “employed” when describing community health workers. Why? Far too many community health workers are not paid — the vast majority of them, actually. They work as volunteers.

Why are governments, NGOs and others not paying community health workers for this important, lifesaving work? Reasons range from tradition to lack of resources within health systems or simply that their value is overlooked.?

The new Community Health Delivery Partnership will change that by leveraging new investments in women community health workers to ensure that they receive the salary, support and supplies they need to deliver vital health and nutrition services. Pay them! That’s part of the new mantra.?

We’re glad, too, to have the support of organizations like 礼来 .?Lilly and UNICEF are working together to change the global landscape of childhood noncommunicable diseases with a focus on prevention, detection and treatment. One of the key levers there is supporting community health workers to serve people in Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

One of the women involved in that program as a community health worker is Manju Bishwokarma in Nepal. Her view of the value of community health is worth hearing:??

“I feel that community health workers play a very crucial role, especially in rural communities in Nepal, where health services are so limited, and many people do not have the means to travel far and wide for treatment.

"We help to bring health care services closer to them: We are their first contacts when they feel something is going wrong, so it is up to us to screen them, to treat them if we can or refer them elsewhere if we can’t.

"Since most of us come from the same community that we serve, we also have a better understanding of the context and are able to establish a better rapport with people, which makes it easier to address their concerns and provide them the necessary information. This is especially important when it comes to chronic diseases – the community members need us to monitor their health and provide regular support.”

Manju knows that with more resources community health workers could do even more:

“One area that I really wish we could focus on building health workers’ skills is in the handling of mental health. Mental health issues are so widespread in our community, and it affects everyone from children to young people to adults… we have a lot of suicide cases here, for example.

"I feel that as community health workers, our duty is not just limited to giving out medication; we also have the responsibility to try to dig deeper into people’s lives, understand their mental struggles, because otherwise, we will only be able to provide surface-level help.

"So many physical ailments are linked to mental stress, it’s something that I’ve experienced personally and have seen in many patients. I think that we need skills in being able to identify such issues in people, to counsel them properly, so that we are not just treating their physical symptoms but really getting to the root of their problems and providing long-term solutions.”

See what I mean?

Manju and community health workers like her are heroic. They are not a silver bullet, but in my view, they are the best chance many communities have to improve the lives of children and families.

Let’s get behind them. And pay them!