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Reaching the rural women through SBCC

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I support a newborn health program in Nepal, and one of our biggest challenges was reaching rural audiences, who have limited access to health services and even mass media, such as radio and television. Our program worked to scale up Chlorhexidine for newborn cord care nationally across Nepal, and conducted a number of nationwide SBCC efforts through mass media, IPC though health workers and Female Community Health Volunteers, and other efforts.

But in a mountainous country like Nepal, even visits from Female Community Health Volunteers were difficult in the most remote communities. When program monitoring found that many women were unreached by our SBCC efforts, we revised our SBCC strategy to include targeted community-based efforts, including community mobilization, wall paintings, street dramas, and other more local efforts to ensure that even those in remote communities would understand the product and ensure its use for home deliveries or institutional births.

The Nepal Demographic Health Survey 2016 found that Chlorhexidine was the most heard health message in Nepal, showing that the combination of national efforts as well as tailored approaches was really successful in ensuring that community members knew about the product and could advocate for its use.

To learn more about our program, you can check out our website here

Summit: What Works? Shifting Norms, Changing Behaviours, Amplifying Voice

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Submitted by naddyadhiambo on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 00:14 Permalink

Hi Khanal!
Thank you for sharing the Chlorhexidine example
Was there any pushback from community elders regarding the antisceptic?
Did they resist the critique of their methods?

Thanks,

Sincerely,

Naddya

Submitted by RONNY OTIENO N… on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 02:47 Permalink

Women and children are mostly hit hard by health challenges in Africa. A case in point is Household Air pollution (HAP) that affects women and children due to the usage of bio fuels that produce alot of smoke and particulate matter that cause respiratory problems. Getting to find solutions to this problem requires that women are put at the centre of the campaign as I did with the UpishiDigi clean cooking campaign in Kenya that sought to move Kenyan populations from use of charcoal in tarditional stoves to using charcoal in cleaner improved charcoal stoves that have more that 50% reduced smoke, are efficient in charcoal usage and have greater safety considerations that can help prevent burns from the stoves.

My experience in this project has provided valuable lessons because women are being used as drivers of the campaign as the primary target. Working though women who have understood the dangers of using traditional charcoal jikos (stoves) on their health, livelihoods (Wastage of fuel hence greater economic burden on women) among others brought great success to the project. Almost all the women participating in the campaign as behaviour change agents through Inter Personal Communication (IPC) first ensurd that they bought the stoves after undersanding the message that HAP is a killer. These women apart from working in the community to create demand for the cleaner charcoal cookstoves also got themselves into the supply chain by acting as last mile distribution agents of the stoves. It also became important to build the capacity of the women to clearly outline value proposition of owning a cleaner charcoal irregardless of the cost. Working with the women to come up with flexible fiancing options to reduce the burden of intitial capital outlay for the stoves also made great impact. Women linked up the project to women's savings group and  women's workplaces which led women to buy the stoves in merry-go rounds hence reducing the barrier of cost. 

That is correct, 'Wada," but we men also have an important role.

Could you please conect with me? I am an SBCC Consultant based in Uganda serving East and Southern Africa including the Republics of Sudan and South Sudan. 'An Wod Acol," studied and worked in Nairobi for many years. Opportunities could open up for both of us!

Michael Wod-Awat Olworo