Community sensitization and advocacy

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Community sensitization and advocacy on Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) and Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) and COVID through School Health Education (SHE) sessions and road miking programs in 8 districts of Province 2 and Sindhuli of Bagmati Province

DBI EA recently conducted 20 school health education (SHE) sessions and 25 road miking program in all 8 districts of Province 2 and additional 3 SHE sessions and 2 road miking programs in Sindhuli district of Bagmati Province from February 3 to 19, 2021. While, SHE sessions in Province 2 and Sindhuli district of Bagmati Province directly engaged 3,000 students, around 13,500 people were directly and indirectly reached through 27 road crying programs (around 500 through each session).

Facilitator conducting school health education session in Bara

Local language speaking local health practitioners and professionals such as health coordinators/sub-coordinators of municipalities, health post in charge, practising doctor of local health facilities facilitated school health education sessions on Lymphatic Filariasis, Visceral leishmaniasis and COVID-19. DBI EA engaged two facilitators for each school to conduct parallel sessions to cover maximum number of students. DBI EA already had prepared content and curriculum of the orientation sessions in close consultation with ASCEND’s public health experts. These content and curriculum were the guiding reference materials for the orientation sessions. The sessions were conducted in local languages namely Maithili and Bhojpuri in Province 2 and sessions in Sindhuli were conducted in Nepali language. DBI EA also recorded the post session learnings outcomes of the students through post-session survey forms with selected students. Class 6 to 12 students belonging to selected public schools participated and benefited from the health education sessions.

Road miking programs were conducted in the densely populated rural and marginalized settlements of Province 2 districts and Sindhuli district. Audio messages related to Lymphatic Filariasis, Visceral leishmaniasis and COVID-19 were played through speakers in market areas/haat bazars and crossroads. Audio messages were played in local languages based on the settlements such as Bhojpuri (for Parsa, Bara and Rautahat) and Maithali (for Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha and Saptari). General public assembled in dense market/haat-bazars and crossroads were benefitted through road crying sessions. After playing the audio messages for multiple times, questionnaire related to these messages were filled in by the audience who heard the messages. For those who were illiterate, DBI EA team facilitated the interviewee and filled the questionnaire. The messages played were comprehended and taken nicely by the local people.

These activities were conducted for the project entitled “Conduct community sensitization and advocacy on Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) and Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) program activities and COVID messages”. DBI EA has been entrusted by Crown Agents with the responsibility to undertake the project to contribute directly to Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of NTDs (ASCEND)’s overarching goal which is to contribute to the global objective of reducing the burden of targeted NTDs so that they are no longer a public health problem, from August 2020 until December 2021. In addition to this, the community sensitization and advocacy activities also contribute to the following ASCEND’s broad outputs:

Output 1: Relevant aspects of health system strengthened to ensure sustainable delivery of NTD control and elimination activities

− Output 2: Increased coverage of preventive treatment for NTDs

− Output 3: Increased coverage of curative treatment and morbidity management and

disability prevention services for NTDs

− Output 4: Increased coverage of appropriate preventive measures, including hygiene

promotion and behavior change communication

− Output 5: Increased knowledge and evidence on the effective response to NTDs

ASCEND is an investment from the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), to advance the impact and sustainability of national programme’s tackling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The project aims at enhancing health system approach to prevent, treat and manage neglected tropical diseases

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