Erica in Ethiopia: September 2018

Last week I went to a Peace Corps "Project Design and Management" training with a Health Extension Worker counterpart. We came up with a work plan for October 2018 - June 2019. In case you're interested, I'm posting it here.

Objective 1.1: Improved Household Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

1. With 6 Health Extension Workers, conduct individual and group household behavior change negotiation programs starting with 8 households, with the aim of conducting a care group with the households and training them to conduct similar lessons in their 8 households. The household work will cover the following key behaviors:
- hand washing with soap/ash at critical times
- face washing for young children to prevent trachoma
- household environmental sanitation including consistent latrine usage and maintenance, trash and waste management, livestock enclosure
- safe water treatment and storage
- early care seeking for diarrhea
- early care seeking for pneumonia

2. Design and conduct health education activities on WASH at the health center.

3. Build a personal relationship with 6 Health Extension Workers to increase motivation, provide emotional support, and reduce burnout.

4. With the HEW Supervisor, design and conduct trainings for HEWs on negotiated behavior change using the "Make Me a Change Agent" manual.

Improved Household Nutrition

1. With 6 Health Extension Workers, conduct individual and group household behavior change negotiation programs starting with 8 households, with the aim of establishing a Care Group with the households and training them to conduct similar lessons in their 8 households. The household work will cover the following key behaviors:
- growth monitoring
- nutrition for lactating mothers
- exclusive breastfeeding for babies 0-6 months
- complementary feeding practices for babies 7-24 months
- healthy nutrition for children under 5 years
- nutrition-intensive home gardening

2. Design and conduct health education activities on nutrition at the health center.

3. Establish and maintain nutrition-sensitive household gardens.

Improved School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

1. Collect baseline data on students' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards WASH.

2. Establish and strengthen WASH club and by so doing build leadership and health education capacity of teacher counterparts and student club leaders.

3. Train at least 3 teachers on proper hand washing, safe water treatment and storage and proper waste disposal.

4. Develop and monitor the implementation of a joint school health work plan with the health center and school to identify opportunities for collaboration.

5. Start school-wide campaigns with WASH club addressing the following key topics:
- hand washing and hand washing stations
- face washing, trachoma transmission and prevention
- latrine maintenance and use
- personal hygiene
- prevention of communicable diseases (diarrhea, water-washed, water-borne)

Improved Adolescent and Youth Life Skills and Reproductive Health

1. Conduct school health needs assessment on life skills, gender issues, and reproductive health (health club activity, health center engagement with schools, classroom health teaching).

2. Collect baseline data on students' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards life skills, gender and reproductive health.

3. Establish and maintain gender/girls clubs and by so doing build leadership and health education capacity of teacher counterparts and student club leaders. Topics covered will include:
- empowering girls
- gender vs sex
- self esteem
- communication
- decision making
- goal setting
- strategies to support emotional health

4. With at least 1 teacher and a select group (10-50) of female students aged 12 and above, make reusable menstrual pads (RUMPS).