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Pakistan

Health Education and Promotion

Organisation: Health Education and Promotion
Address: The Aga Khan University, IED-PDC, 1-5/B-VIII, F.B. Area, Karimabad, PO Box 13688, Karachi-75950
Tel: +922 1 6347611-4
Fax: +922 1 6347616
E-mail: ied.has@aku.edu
Website: www.aku.edu
Contact: Dr. Shabnam Ahmed, Zohra Nisar Ahmed

Organisation of Child-to-Child Activities

Aga Khan University–Institute for Educational Development (AKU–IED) tested an action research pilot project in 1998 to develop health-promoting schools in Pakistan in partnership with Save the Children UK. Four years (1998-2002) on gains are seen in both qualitative and quantitative measures in health education as a conduit for school improvement. Our Child-to-Child activities take place in rural, urban and slum areas. Activities are implemented through schools, including private, NGOs and government schools. Our organisational structure provides material for teachers (CtC core material in English and Urdu), training through in-service school workshops, monitoring and feedback through classroom observations, and meetings with the teachers. We have also consulted with other large and small NGOs providing CtC training and Comprehensive School Health Promotion (CSHP) consultancy. These include:

1. The Primary Education Project–Improvement of Learning Environment (PEP–ILE) in the North West Frontier Province;
2. The Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP) in Northern areas of Pakistan and Chitral;
3. The Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) in rural Sindh;
4. Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) in rural Sindh;
5. Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) in rural Sindh.

In working with our partners, we provide support and consultancy through conducting workshops and short-term trainings. During the year 2002 Child-to-Child Trust London identified HAS as one of the resource groups for the Comic Relief Investment Grant (CRIG).

Child-to-Child Activities

We aim to establish a prototype/model for the Health Promoting or Health Action School in Pakistan. Through teachers’ training and courses we encourage them to establish school improvement through Comprehensive School Health Promotion (CSHP) Child-to-Child activities are introduced through classroom teaching. Child-to-Child activities involve school children (girls and boys aged 5-14 years) and also pre-school children (aged 3-5 years). By using the four-step approach, children are involved in identifying their common health problems, prioritising those problems, conducting surveys (asking questions and recording answers with the help of the teacher), taking the initiative in planning and taking action, and evaluating the action (with the help of the teacher). The teacher plans his/her lessons according to the four-steps and this has helped to encourage a desirable level of children's participation. Each school designs and implements the school health action plans (SHAP) appropriate to its own needs, strengths and constraints. They identify themes to be covered during the term and classify those themes into teaching topics. They also plan co-curricular and environmental activities to reinforce the health knowledge and translate it into action. The school manages its own programme through appointing a health co-ordinator. Some of the schools choose to teach health as a separate subject. Others schools enhance subjects like Science, Social Studies, Maths, Islamiat and Language through integration of health education topics.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Child-to-Child Activities

We monitor and evaluate our Child-to-Child activities through different activities, e.g. school visits, experience sharing meetings, HEALTH association meetings. Different activities are organised for children at AKU–IED where they participate and work together. Another activity to monitor is documentation of the activities.

Training

We have arranged several training workshops for teachers in schools. We have also organised training for trainee teachers on the Master of Education (M.Ed) and Certificate of Education programmes at AKU–IED. The participants of trainings are teachers, school heads, health workers, school nurses, and partners of NGOs and the AKDN. Training sessions are run by Health Education team members. Our training focus is on the Child-to-Child approach, Fun Active Methods, school health action planning, topic planning, managing health promoting activities at school; school health services and healthy environments are also covered.

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

We use the following Child-to-Child publications:

1. Small is Healthy;
2. Children for Health;
3. Child-to-Child resource books (1 and 2, especially the activity sheets);
4. Health Promotion in Our Schools (for the HAS team);
5. Child-to-Child readers (to a lesser extent).
6. SEHAT

We have also translated the following Child-to-Child materials into Urdu:

1. Activity sheets;
2. Readers;
3. Small is Healthy (unpublished);
4. Children for Health;
5. SEHAT (unpublished health topic plans with activities)

We also plan to publish a combined Urdu version of Children for Health/part one of Small is Healthy.

Finally, we have developed our own training packages:

• Fun Active Methods Enhancement (FAME) manual.

Date: 2005
Source: HAS