CB BureauIn the eyes of a newcomer, most things commonplace appear to be out of the league of ordinary and seem to be very bright on the edge of their comprehension. Two such innovative creations in different projects of CARE India also caught my attention, as I tried to permeate through the different programme strategies being used in projects.
The first of these is in the project called EMPHASIS, a five-year initiative funded by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) aiming to reduce the vulnerability of key mobile populations to HIV and AIDS along two mobility routes – between Bangladesh and India, and Nepal and India – by delivering focused interventions at source, transit, and destination points. CARE, the lead NGO in the project, formed a partnership with a number of local CSOs to catalyse the programme at the ground level and have the maximum possible outreach. These CSOs employs both professional ‘outreach workers’ as well as volunteer Peer Educators to travel to distant villages to educate the mobile population about the risk of HIV/AIDS and to promote safer sex practices.
A very innovative approach has been taken up by the team to expedite the exchange of information. In the project, technology is being used to connect outreach workers, target population as well as the CSOs involved in the project for dealing with HIV/AIDS, which is endemic among the mobile population in the region, not only in India, but also Nepal and Bangladesh. A widespread network is active to improve service delivery and social support. The network provides information and education about HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care to the target population. The project has developed a strong connection among outreach workers with a concern for delivery of high-quality health and social services to HIV/AIDS-infected and affected individuals and families. EMPHASIS’s premise is that by uniting and training outreach workers and sharing resources, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies can be significantly expanded among the mobile population.
The approach is not only new but also goes on to remove institutional barriers and make communication as well as knowledge sharing much easier.
The second observation happened through exploring the Sure Start project. Sure Start aims at sustainable improvement of maternal and newborn health status through effective community action in two of the poorest districts of Uttar Pradesh – Rae Bareli and Barabanki. The initiative’s twin objectives are: to significantly increase individual, household, and community action that directly and indirectly improve maternal and newborn health, and to enhance system and institutional capabilities for sustained improvement in maternal and newborn health status. The project works closely with families of pregnant women and newborns; ASHAs, ANMs, and AWWs for referral and counseling services; and village health and sanitation committees for ensuring quality and regularity of services through innovative approaches like playing various games to instil their understanding and remove misconceptions related to maternal and newborn health.
Also, the initiative came up with the idea of sending letters to the males or the fathers-to-be in the family, to get them as involved in the programme as the mothers, for it was found that a major gap in the programmes had been to not involve the male members. Letters addressed to expectant fathers were sent in the name of unborn children, listing the different instructions for pre- and post-natal care of mothers and children, so that they could be as aware as the mothers and a sense of responsibility is dug at through emotional bonding. To involve mothers-in-law, it was made compulsory that in the community-level meetings the pregnant women had to be accompanied by them or any other caretaker. This was a path-breaking strategy and helped the project to move towards the desired behavioural change.
The Sure Start project strategized to have thematic meetings with mothers’ committees and also with the village health and sanitation committees (VHSC). With the mothers’ committees, they have developed the snakes-and-ladders game to provide information on birth preparedness. All the required information is provided through the boxes that connect the ladder, while the wrong practices are displayed through the snakes. The group not only takes immense pleasure in being a part of the game, but also imbibes new information through ways that would help them to easily recall it at times when most needed.
The above measures are just an example of how thinking differently can lead to a much wider impact than blindly treading the path already set.
