Celebrating Nepal Female Community Health Volunteers, but for how much longer?

Due to the recent Gen Z upheaval it is very easy to have missed the award won by Nepal’s Female Community Health Volunteers , commonly known as FCHVs. The important contribution of FCHVs has just been recognised last month (September 2025) by the World Health Organization (WHO). FCHVs won the newly introduced WHO South-East Asia Region’s Award for Public Health Champion. The WHO states in its citation that “FCHVs are being recognized for their transformative role in improving maternal and child health, increasing immunization coverage, promoting nutrition, and managing disease outbreaks, even in Nepal’s most geographically and socially challenged regions”.

Furthermore, they are globally recognized as “a low-cost, high-impact model, the FCHV program is a replicable example of sustainable, gender-equitable, and community-led health systems strengthening”.