PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Home health aides work hard for low pay and no chance of advancement. Lea Dezai-Epse-Wanhi loved it anyway.
“I’m an immigrant. America helped me a lot, so being a home health aide allowed me to help another person, to show the love I received to another person,” she said.
Still, she jumped at the chance to improve her prospects by taking nursing assistant training through health care workers union 1199C, which is funded by a bill introduced by City Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson.
“Eighty-one percent of home health aides impacted detrimentally by COVID-19 were Black and brown women, so I said, we have to come up with a program that can help them reskill and upskill to move into positions in health care,” said Gilmore Richardson.
The first class of certified nursing assistants, just nine members, graduated on Friday. The union hopes to expand the program now that COVID-19 is waning. There are 100 people on the waiting list.
Training coordinator Shona Murphy said the graduates can expect to make up to $16,000 more.
“Everyone’s looking for nurse aides. Everywhere we go — ‘Where are the nurse aides?’ We’re like, ‘We got ’em, they’re coming,’ ” she said.
“They’ll be moving into family-supporting and sustaining jobs, union jobs in health care, and I could not be happier,” Gilmore Richardson said at the ceremony.