NOVA SCOTIA GAMBIA ASSOCIATION GLOBAL FUND MALARIA REPORT

QUARTER 8
1

Report No. Reporting Period Objective Target Group(s)

NSGA 008 January to March 2012 To increase and sustain the correct use of insecticide treated bed nets to 85% by those most vulnerable to malaria and to 60% by the rest of the population in the Coastal Region by 2015.

Peer Health Educators Teacher coordinators General Public Output/Summary of During the period under review, activities 300 PEER HEALTH EDUCATORS Trained who reached undertaken 3162 Of their Peers in their Schools 34 Teacher Coordinators were trained Radio Spots were also aired for the General public on BCC messages. These activities are meant to give the participants the necessary information and skills they need so as to participate in the behavior change strategy of NSGA in the usage of insecticide treated nets. The trainings are not only to improve the skills of the participants but to shape their interventions to be effective in responding to the need of the consistent use of ITNS across the country. Date of Submission
10th

May,2012 Submitted by: Nuru Sey

1.0 INTRODUCTION The trainings conducted in the schools were part of the traditional NSGA strategy in the project to capacitise students and teachers on malaria and key behavior change promotion skills in order to serve as information disseminators in their schools and communities on malaria prevention and control. These were done in ten (10) schools spread across the country.. With the intervention of malaria training for organized social groups in communities serve as a bottom-up approach as well as making malaria an integral intervention area for community based associations not forth coming this quarter. These groups exist and provide service to their various communities as development animators and volunteers in different sectors thus making them viable agents of change promoters. The youth groups will directly work with their communities through set-ups such as Village Development Committees, religious groups, sporting institutions, etc thus making the issues of ITN use a popular approach towards malaria prevention and control. Therefore strengthening them should be a continuous process. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES Key Activities Training PHEs Resul ts of 300 Peer Health 300 Educators PHES reach ed 34 participants Target Implementa tion Status The activity was implemented as planned with an extra student reached. Comments/ Future plans Successful

Teacher Training

1200 Spots Airing of Radio Spots

34Tea chers The activity was implemented as planned with all 1200 teacher spots coordinators attending

All teachers were successfully trained and have started their step-down activities.

1.1 Overview

These activities were implemented not to only equip the beneficiaries prevention of malaria information but to serve as active contributors in the fight against malaria. The trainings were done through school administrations in schools and through the help of active youth workers within the region. The trainings however served as catalyst to involve the most critical segment of the society. The young people will serve as role models to others when they serve as panelists in health promotion, community radio programs and during organized malaria programs in schools and communities. They will serve as promoters of net usage in their communities and schools in friendly manners while others will give out information regarding the correct and consistent use of nets. Some of the trainees also served as Distributors during the Mass Bed net Distribution Campaign which was done some time back and gave them a real insight on the relevance of ITNs. 2.0 PEER HEALTH EDUCATORS TRAINING Table1: List of Schools trained No UPPER BASIC SCHOOL 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Abuko UBS Kaur UBS Jimbala BCS Kerr Mama BCS Ngayen Sanjal BCS Numuyel BCS St Josephs LBS Peyem UBS Brikama UBS Kunkujang Keitaya UBS # OF PHES 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 # TCS/facilitators 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

2.1 Issues Discussed: Basic Malaria knowledge The burden of malaria on the Gambia Effects of malaria in pregnancy The treatment of malaria (the importance of prompt and correct treatment) Prevention of malaria Behavioral Change Communication techniques/ ITN promotion Presentation skills and strategies Work plan development and reporting Overview of group administration for sustainability 5

2.2 Methodology: Methods of teaching were participatory, multifaceted and adult teaching techniques thereby giving the participants room for sharing, learning and guiding one another through: Lectures Open discussions Group assignments Singing Drama 2.3 Expected Outcomes: Increase the knowledge of participants on malaria prevention and control. Participants to understand their roles in the project to enable them to curtail their programs accordingly. Strengthen the organizational set-up of youth groups by creating improved governance/management hierarchies. 3.0 NSGA TEACHER TRAINING The Nova Scotia- Gambia Association (NSGA) has implemented a capacity building training workshop for Teacher Coordinators in the Peer Health Education Program in Region 4 (LRR). NSGA is implementing a nation-wide capacitating program for Teacher Coordinators in the six (6) educational regions in the country. This Teacher training is part of the sustainability initiative of the organization to provide learning opportunities for partners who coordinate and manage the malaria program at grassroots institutions in schools and communities. It is hoped that Teacher Coordinators will be able to continue implementing malaria-related activities in their schools and communities when NSGA Trainers are not on the ground. Teachers are expected to conduct training programs for their Peer Health teams and others to contribute to the reduction of the malaria incidence especially among the uninformed vulnerable groups. Due to these expectations, an intensive training program was held in Pakalinding drawing the Teacher Coordinators from all the intervention schools in LRR and the Cluster Monitors of the region thus having a total number of thirty four (34) participants. The training was a key activity of the quarter due to the fact that the sustainability of intervention can only be guaranteed when the expected Trainers are equipped with the necessary ability and technical skills of managing and attaining the expectations of the project. The training began with a short but informative Opening Ceremony where the Deputy Director of the Regional Education Directorate, Region 4 attended. During this ceremony it was emphasized that teachers and students have

always been important partners in the Malaria Project and continuity of such partnership will importantly continue to add value to what the NSGA and its partners do. The presentations of the training were formulated according to the needs as well as expectations of the project thus the topics and activities covered included: Peer Health Education Program: Sharing the success of this approach in health promotion in The Gambia Leadership, Governance, Management and of PHE teams Malaria Prevention and Control Behavior Change Communication Counseling Data Collection, management and reporting Presentation skills and strategies Development of IEC tools for step-down activities Development of quarterly work plans for all schools The first presentation was aimed at introducing and or reminding the participants about the Peer Health Education Model, how the model has contributed in raising awareness about diseases affecting the socio-economic growth of the country and how it has turned many people in communities to be more conscious and pragmatic to preventive measures of diseases. The health education initiatives of Peer Health Educators in schools and communities are centered on malaria prevention and control. This intervention goes a long way in guaranteeing the attainment of project targets NSGA is expected to achieve. The presentation on Malaria Prevention and Control provided enough evidentbased information for Teachers to be able to conduct step-down activities. Teachers will be able to give out up-to-date information about the state of malaria in The Gambia, where success have been achieved and what new strategies are needed for the sustainability of the success achieved. Because prevention information in some cases does not match with the expected healthy behavior, there is need for accelerated focus on behavior promotion. The presentation on behavior change communication will enable teachers to share with their students BCC tools, techniques and processes. It is expected that they will now be able to take their beneficiaries through these different stages for improved program outcome. The discussion on BCC was centered on the promotion of ITN use, encouraging early report of suspected 7

malaria cases and discouraging the use of herbs and traditional healing in the rural areas. The session was an informative discussion that enabled participants to develop working BCC strategies for their schools and communities. The Governance and Leadership presentation was aimed at providing the necessary guide to Teacher Coordinators to better manage the malaria program of PHEs through effective and efficient governance structures and systems. With functioning PHE teams, there is more expectation that PHEs will be able to achieve targets through clear and specific responsibilities. The presentation on counseling skills and techniques will enable PHE teams to better communicate/promote behavior that will accelerate and or maintain the use of ITNs. The presentation introduced the participants to counseling techniques, procedures and how project beneficiaries are expected to be reached when difficulties of using or adhering to preventive behaviors arise. The use of data is imperative for the achievement of the project expectations. Participants were taken through the process of data collection, its importance and use. This presentation enabled the participants to importantly note that the Global Fund Project requires the presentation of periodic data of achievements or otherwise registered against the project objectives. Therefore, teachers were urged to develop the behavior of proper data keeping for the interest of the project and also do update their levels with the use of the record books provided for all beneficiary schools. Presentation skills and strategies are important components in the PHE program as the PHEs use these wide ranging strategies to communicate to their targets. Due to this, there was a session on this area to enable teachers to learn and or refresh about the various ways that PHE teams can use to promote positive and healthy behaviors regarding malaria prevention and treatment. As a result, the participants learnt about the ways complex/scientific information could be turned into simple, short and captivating messages for easier understanding among the beneficiaries. The discussion centered on malaria script writing and acting, poetry, group and assembly presentations as well as community presentation approaches. It is expected that teachers will develop their students to be able to be effective communicators. The training ended on the fourth day of the activity with all teachers developing comprehensive work plans for activity implementation in schools and communities. All participants were certified as capable Trainers for malaria prevention and control.

4.0 RADIO SPOTS AIRING

The radio spots focusing on current issues surrounding the bed net use are addressed using succinct behavior change communication messages. During the quarter under review, 1200 spots were aired on radio stations across the county. 5.0 SUCCESSES: Trainings conducted successfully through the joint support of the NSGA trainer, school administrations and the Coordinators. PHEs have successfully reached out to their peers both in and out of their schools.. 6.0 CHALLENGES: Transportation refund is not enough to do all the arrangements required before the trainings 7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS: Provide facilitators and trainees with sufficient transportation to be able to do all the required logistics needed. 8.0 LESSONS LEARNT: The Peer Health Education Program can expand by combining the efforts of school based PHES and community based PHES in the forms of students and youth groups. This will make the intervention of NSGA more effectively felt as both categories will be able to plan, implement and monitor specific programs that suit their status. Reported by Nuru Sey Project Manager