45 years in Health Sciences and Education: Dr. Sarah Gordon to be awarded ─ 93 persons identified to receive National Awards today

Oct 06, 2018 News

Health Education Consultant at the Ministry of Public Health, and National Awardee, Dr. Sarah Gordon.

Dr. Sarah Gordon is among the list of 41 awardees to be conferred with the Golden Arrow of Achievement on October 6, 2018. They are all a part of a list of 93 persons identified to receive National Awards this year.
The reason for Dr. Gordon’s nomination is obvious since she has dedicated 45 years of her career and her life to training and educating Community Health Workers and other Public Health workers.
Her work is primarily based in the hinterland, Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. Even after retirement, she is still a consultant and a major support to the Ministry of Public Health Ministry’s Health Sciences and Health Education arm.
According to Dr. Gordon, her life foundation started with “an exciting childhood.” Her work with the ministry started in 1973. “I have been involved in the training of health workers and working in communities because my background is in health education and health sciences education… I have been involved in training various categories of health workers and so I think as a result of those experiences and those kinds of activities [I am being awarded].”
She explained that the career of health education was not necessarily part of her plan but she had a background in education and went in that direction anyway.
“I came back to Guyana and I was sent to the Ministry of Health’s – Health Education Unit and, well I was there as a cadet and after spending a year or two, I was appointed a health education officer and I love it, so I just stayed in that area. Going into this was quite by accident.” She said since she obtained a first degree in Psychology after studying abroad.
As she prepares to be recognised, nationally, for her stellar contributions to the public health sector for the past 45 years, Dr. Gordon reflected on her pioneering the Community Health Workers (CHW) training programme in Guyana, a major milestone for her.
“My most memorable milestone is the training of the Community Health Workers, which I initiated. We trained the first batch in 1979 and that was in the South Rupununi.” She pointed out that as a result of the initial training of CHWs, all CHWs working would now have benefitted from her expertise training.
As she continues to work in this specific sector, Dr. Gordon says she will branch out to resuscitate and support the Girls’ Guides Association here in Guyana. “We are trying to get the young women to understand the capacity and the abilities that they have and they need to see them. We are not all going to be physicists and so forth but whatever is their little talent, you use it and you develop it.”
(DPI)

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