The challenge has always been when starting a CHC to provide the extensive Toolkit of Visual aids which are needed to enable the 24 topics to be done in a participatory manner. Using tried and tested PHAST activities such as ‘3 pile sorting,’ ‘Ranking’ and ‘Blocking the Route’ we had to teach people online to use these tools in a virtual setting. The preparation of the Module 4: Facilitation of a Community Health Club was a huge investment of time on the part of the course presenter Dr. J. Waterkeyn who spent much of lock-down developing the lesson plans for this module.
In addition in 2021, a Learning Management System was attached to this website to allow participants to pay and download training materials for each of the 24 sessions. These sessions took place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday pm for two hours from 8th – 26th Feb. The 3 Kenyans and 10 Malawians who had already completed Module 1,2 and 3 were joined by a team of 10 field staff from South Sudan who were based in two rooms, one in the Muslim north and one in the tropical south of the country. It was indeed extraordinary that they were able to connect from their tent of an office where the internet was strong enough for them to stay connected most of the time.
It took a lot of dedication and concentration to complete this training and it was inspiring how everyone hung in, pouring over their laptops in remote settings whilst we worked through the content which ranged from the standard WASH topic of prevention of diarrhoea, to Covid 19, Malaria, Bilharzia, Tuberculosis to HIV/AIDs and Gender based violence.
Every one of the 23 participants completed the 24 sessions training and received a certificate at a virtual Graduation Day, which was done by printing out certificates locally whilst AA awarded them on Zoom.
We have received a positive review from Prof. Blair Gifford, University of Colorado, Director of Global Health Connections who says,