| Project Detail |
Project outline and objectives
Through this follow-up to the 2015–2018 Integrated Community Case
Management – Maternal and Child Survival (iCCM-MaCS) project, we will work
with the Ministry of Health to strengthen referral systems for under-fives with
danger signs, and deliver integrated community level services for MNCH care,
nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in three
districts in the Tooro region: Bunyangabo, Kabarole and
Kamwenge. Specifically, the project aims to:
• guarantee that all community health workers — known as
village health team members (VHTs) — conduct monthly
house visits
• ensure that at least 50 percent of pregnant women attend
four or more antenatal care (ANC) visits and 75 percent
receive postnatal care within two days of giving birth
• increase the presence of skilled birth attendants at
deliveries and the number of premature babies cared for in
health facilities
• ensure that VHTs visit at least 50 percent of newborns
within 24 hours of their birth
• increase the proportion of mothers who exclusively
breastfeed for six months
• equip 80 percent of households and primary schools with
handwashing facilities, soap and clean drinking water
• ensure that all pre-schools provide weekly morning
physical exercises
• ensure that all health facilities conduct immunisation
outreach and immunise more children against diphtheria,
pertussis and tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus
influenzae
• ensure that at least 50 percent of all health facilities report
community data to the Health Management Information
System and District Health Information System 2.
Activities
Malaria Consortium will facilitate the training of 924 VHTs
and 200 newly-recruited frontline health workers at 61 public
health facilities, who will learn to treat childhood illnesses and
refer on MNCH cases with danger signs. VHTs will also educate
expectant mothers on early birth preparedness; encourage
pregnant women to attend ANC check-ups and to deliver
at health facilities. During follow-up visits, they will register
births, monitor newborns’ growth and remind mothers to
attend postnatal care visits, follow best breastfeeding and good
umbilical cord care practices, and take their newborns for
immunisation.
We will also build health facility staff’s interpersonal skills
and knowledge of equipment available for caring for referred
patients. Concurrently, community and facility-level health
workers will be trained to collect, analyse, transmit and use
iCCM data for decision making.
Through social and behaviour change interventions — such
as community dialogues, school health programmes, radio
spots, community dramas and village health clubs — VHTs
will generate greater demand for health facilities’ services,
promote disease prevention and treatment, and advocate for
good WASH and nutrition practices to prevent diarrhoea and
other waterborne diseases. During meetings of village health
clubs, male community members will be specifically targeted to
promote the uptake of MNCH services.
At the district level, we will work with health and educational
departments to deliver multivitamin supplements to
pregnant women and new mothers, and provide vitamin A
and deworming services to under-fives. This will take place
during Child Health Days Plus — biannual, government-led,
month-long vitamin A and deworming outreach campaigns.
The project will also see VHTs extend these services to
the community level for those who may have missed the
campaigns.
Learning objectives
The project aims to:
• understand how male participation can affect the uptake
of MNCH services, and improve ECD and WASH practices
• understand how to develop and sustain primary
healthcare delivery at the community level in the three
districts. |
