KAMPALA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's ministry of health on Tuesday said it is going to recruit over 15,000 people who will be trained as community health workers in villages across the east African country.

Ruth Acheng, minister of health, said the recruitment drive follows the approval of the Community Health Extension Workers Policy by Cabinet on Monday.

Aceng said the recruitment aims at intensifying efforts on prevention of communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases.

According to the ministry, the recruits will be trained on how to identify sick people, conduct home visits and community outreach services, such as carrying out routine immunisations, HIV counselling and testing among others.

Experts say community health workers are a crucial link to health care at the household level.

Uganda already has some community health workers facilitated by non-governmental organizations.