Since 1988 the Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) has been conducting child survival activities in remote Haitian villages using resident health agents.
HHF views its relationship with each village as a partnership and requires the formation of a village health committee with defined responsibilities. Among other responsibilities, the committee is responsible for motivating the community to become involved in preventive health activities. HHF began to form mothers' clubs in 1990, primarily to provide a more efficient setting for health education than home visits. HHF uses nonformal educational techniques in health education sessions with mothers' clubs(demonstrations, skits, songs and jokes). There are 17 health education lessons including exclusive breastfeeding, childhood immunizations and the signs of pneumonia.
The health committees and mothers' clubs have been instrumental in helping HHF to achieve a high degree of participation in its interventions. For example, mothers' club members counsel nonmembers about exclusive breastfeeding. They recognize pneumonia in other mothers' children and bring them to the health agent for treatment. A recent evaluation documented that 98% of children 9-59 months were vaccinated against measles and 66% of children under six months were exclusively breastfed (the national average is practically nil). An evaluation by the CDC determined that HHF had reduced by 50% pneumonia-specific mortality in children under five.
This presentation will describe the process of forming the health committees and mothers' clubs, the responsibilities and benefits of membership, health education formats and topics and reasons for success.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session the participant will be able to describe several strategies for achieving high levels of community participation in health activities in developing country settings
Keywords: Community Health, Child Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.