A nobel for health volunteers

Before the 1970s, most poor Thais were farmers. Given the size of the territory, most of the poor did not have access to free health services due to their scarcity. In the late 1970s, Thailand adopted the WHO Alma-Ata Declaration, called “Health for All”. 

Since then all governments have facilitated free healthcare in hospitals and local communities have encouraged a widespread movement of young health volunteers: doctors, paramedics and students who began to visit all families house to house, starting with the poor. Gradually, the village health network grew to 1.09 million volunteers and reached total coverage of the territory, including large cities such as Bangkok where over 15 thousand volunteers work. 

During the Covid pandemic, volunteers visited every family, including those of immigrants from Myanmar and other countries and, thanks also to vaccinations, achieved one of the lowest morbidity and mortality rates in the world. The main programs, including reproductive health and HIV-AIDS prevention, care for the lonely elderly and mother-child protection have given excellent results, also using monitoring apps via mobile phones, which are widespread in Thailand. Mental health and quality of nutrition have been added to the priorities..

The health volunteers received a "bonus" from the government equal to 25 euros per month, doubled last year to 50 euros, to which is added the "unparalleled" salary of the sympathy of the entire population, also expressed by donations in kind from people they visit, who never fail to welcome them as members of their family. 

In August 2024, the Ramon Magsaysay Prize, the highly coveted international prize (based in the Philippines) for civic and scientific engagement – ​​also called the Nobel of Asia – was awarded to Thai village health volunteers.

The award citation recognized the extraordinary effectiveness of this community movement, which points to the results of millions of lives saved. Certainly a good practice of hope-action, better than discussing state or market public health models used in other parts of the world.




NP october 2024
Sandro Calvani