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India

CHETNA

Organisation: Centre for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA)
Address: Lilavatiben Lalbhai's Bunglaow, Civil Camp Road, Shahibaug, Ahmedabad 380004 and Kanubhai Dahyabhai MehtaCHETNA Pravruti Kendra1834 Desai ni PoleKhadia, Ahmedabad 380 001
Country: India
Telephone: +91 79 22868856, 22866695, 22149938
Fax: +91 79 2866513, 22113005
E-Mail: chetna456@gmail.com, chetna_ctc@yahoo.co.in, chetna456@vsnl.net
Web Site: www.chetnaindia.org
Contact Name: Ms Indu Capoor (Director), Ms Minaxi Shukla (Deputy Director, CRC)

Organisation:

Over the past two decades, CHETNA has initiated and implemented programmes, which focus on empowerment of children related to health issues through the Child-to-Child approach, in various states of India. CHETNA pioneered the promotion of the Child-to-Child approach in India in 1985. Our involvement was initiated through organizing a national level workshop to introduce the CtC approach to government and non-government organisations working in the areas of health education and development in India. Thereafter, between 1986-1992, CHETNA supported various groups all over India who were trying out the CtC approach in different programmatic set ups. Currently, CHETNA continues to work with and support GOs/NGOs implementing Child-to-Child at the field level.

Child-to-Child Activities:

CHETNA works in addressing the nutritional, health education and developmental needs of children and youth. CHETNA's Child-to-Child activities involve disadvantaged, special needs and streetchildren of school going age, adolescents and youth with a special focus on girls. The overall aim of our CtC programmes is to enable and empower children so that they can gain control over their own health and contribute to the health of their families and communities. Our objectives are:

1. To enable children to participate in their own health, education and development;
2. To advocate for appropriate systems to be put in place, e.g., medical referral system for children, as well as those which encourage the participation of children in educational and developmental processes.

We also aim to promote gender equality, child rights and inclusive education.

CHETNA supports school based health initiatives such as a school health programme, run in collaboration with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) which includes 574 schools.

Three components are emphasized - health services, healthy environment and health education. Celebration of weeks/days/events of significance such as nutrition week (1-7 September), Breast feeding week (1-7 August) World Health Day (7 April) etc are also emphasized. Additionally, the schools are encouraged to use Balmela (the Children's fair), Gram Yatra (Village Rallies) and health camps etc for creating health awareness. Our local health and education departments have been involved in the planning of health promotion in schools from the very beginning. We have also involved both departments in the evaluation of our activities. In working with us, they have adopted various roles, for example, as co-trainers, administrators, monitors and funders etc. However, we found that initially, it was difficult for the health and education departments to work together. Nevertheless, we overcame these early difficulties and since then, all parties have cooperated in pursuit of our goals.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Child-to-Child Activities:

In the urban school health promotion programme, we have tried to integrate monitoring and evaluation procedures. The education supervisors, as a part of their daily routine, go to schools to supervise and to report their findings to zonal officers, who in turn
bring this information to the notice of the Administrative Officer.
Education supervisors are part of our school health core team so their reports are valuable. Additionally, we organise follow up visits
to schools to observe the work done by teachers and children.
Apart from this, CHETNA tries to help develop systems of
monitoring for partner NGOs and government programmes. Efforts are consciously made to involve children in monitoring the
activities/programmes. Regarding changes brought about by the programmes, attitude change is difficult to measure. However, we have observed that children consciously wash their hands now, and do not buy food from the vendors outside the schools. Health screening is bringing many previously unknown things to the
notice of the doctors/teachers. Children may also have developed life-skills, self esteem, leadership, and improved communication skills as a result of the programme, but these are hard to measure.

Training:

We provide training to trainers, supervisors, managers of
government and non-government organisations, as well as groups such as school teachers, Anganwadi (pre-school) workers, youth,
health workers and women's groups etc. The trainers are often part of the CHETNA team or part of the master trainer teams from other organisations trained earlier by CHETNA. The methodology of the training is always participatory. We mainly use simulation, small group discussions, slides, films, role-plays, mock sessions etc. according to the needs of the concerned project. CHETNA has been selected as a Mother NGO - under the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme implemented by the Government of India - to support 17 NGOs in four selected districts of Gujarat to initiate and implement innovative RH education programmes for adolescents and other community members.

Use, Adaptation, Translation and Production of Child-to-Child Materials:

We use Health Promotion in Our Schools, the Child-to-Child resource books, and Children as Partners for Health. CHETNA has adapted and translated almost all Child-to-Child materials into Hindi and Gujarat. CHETNA has also prepared simplified information about Child-to-Child in the form of a Child-to-Child folder. This has been published in English, Hindi and Gujarati.