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Sudan

GOAL Ireland

PO Box 48, Khartoum
Tel: +912 159 864
E-mail: acd@goalsudan.com -or- info@goal.ie
Contact: Perpetua McShane
Website: www.goal.ie to http://www.goal.ie/atwork/sudan.shtml

The programme reports :

Organisation of Child-to-Child Activities

“We started our Child-to-Child activities in October 1998. They are run through a health centre and a group of schools. Funding for these activities is provided by GOAL. One of the contexts in which we work is a slum, more specifically the SOBA squatter area, which has a population of 64,000 IDPs from south and west Sudan. We also work in Malakal town in south Sudan. Finally, we also work in an urban context with approximately 33,000 residents. Approximately 92 children and 6 adults are involved in the activities, 25 in Malakal and 67 in Soba. The children are aged 9-15 years and include both boys and girls. Some of the children who participate are street children. The adult workers are community health workers and social workers. Our main aim is to involve children as partners in health promotion and to make schools places where good health is practised.

Child-to-Child Activities

Child-to-Child activities are introduced outside the school curriculum and through health education sessions within the community. Children are encouraged to take the initiative and think for themselves, e.g., through mini surveys and discussion. We use the Child-to-Child six-step approach. We have to take this slowly as the children's concentration is sometimes weak, due to their circumstances. Nevertheless, through the activities, we aim to help children develop skills such as thinking, practical and communication skills. 8 schools are currently involved. Most of the activities take place inside the schools, but outside the school curriculum.

Working Together

Both health and education professionals help to plan the content of training events. They are also involved in planning for Child-to-Child sessions in schools, especially to ensure that Child-to-Child activities do not interrupt the children's usual lessons. Parents have been involved in community awareness workshops. They have also been involved in the selection of some of the children for the activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Child-to-Child Activities

We monitor and evaluate in a number of ways: through site visits; through assessing children's knowledge; and by looking at the changes the activities have brought. We have noticed that there have been definite changes in the children's behaviour, especially in relation to hygiene.

Training and materials

Both health workers and children are trained. Training is provided by health staff. The content of training sessions focuses on the Child-to-Child concept of how to implement a Child-to-Child programme, and how to conduct Child-to-Child workshops. In relation to children, training focuses on health topics, and the encouragement of methods such as posters, songs, role-plays and demonstrations. We use various Child-to-Child materials such as the activity sheets, the readers, the resource books and the training pack. We have translated some of the training pack materials into Arabic.”

Planned expansion

The programme currently seeks to expand its Child-to-Child activities and is currently in the process of acquiring more Arabic materials through links with the Resource Centre at ARC (Lebanon).