The Annual Report for July 2014 – June 2015 has now been submitted to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2015 08 02 Annual Report Rusizi April 2014 – March 2015_AN-JK-4_JW_AJW-1 (1)
Executive Summary
This report highlights activities and achievements implementing the Community Based Environmental Health Promotion Programme (CBEHPP) in Rusizi District from April 2014 to March 2015. Africa AHEAD-Rwanda (AA-R), supported the Ministries of Health and Local Government to adopt the Community Health Club (CHC) Methodology. Activities during this past year consisted of monitoring CHC activities, training facilitators of so-called ‘Lite villages’, moderate overall supervision, conducting mid-line and end-line surveys, holding Graduation Ceremonies for Classic CHCs, together with national advocacy and registration activities.
The INGO license for AA-R was renewed and the new District Senior Administration in Rusizi is well informed about the dual roles of AA-R and IPA towards fulfilling all requirements of the RCT. After the 20 dialogue sessions within each of 50 village CHCs, the CHC Committees conducted a survey to determine the members who were eligible for graduation. Criteria included attendance in all sessions and the implementation of the ‘home-work’ (i.e.. physical improvements of local sanitary facilities in the home).In June 2014, a total of 50 ASOCs were trained in the Lite version of the CHCs and this was done by Rusizi District staff with support from AA-R and MoH. Also present were staff from IPA (7) and a representative from UR/SPH. The ASOC were handed the black and white visual toolkits and training manual to conduct the 8 sessions in their respective villages. Monitoring was minimum within the Lite CHCs (an average of 2-4 visits for the total of just health topics).
The monitoring at village level was conducted by the Classic CHC committee to ensure that the households were implementing the desired homework. The EHOs with the help of a mobile app ‘Mobenzi’ collected data for mid-line and end-line. In order to ensure that the project is running as planned in all villages, three motorbikes were donated to the district of Rusizi to ensure the mobility of Environmental Health Officers for project monitoring, who are considered one of the ways hygiene is reinforced in the Classic CHC Model.
Comparison between the mid-line and end-line surveys within the 50 Classic CHC villages shows improvements across as many as 17 hygiene indicators. The highlights include ‘drinking water’ which has improved significantly with a 21.6% increase in treatment and safe storage. ‘Latrine coverage’ is high with 68.3% improved latrines of which 69.5% are clean. Sanitation upgrading took place with 21% having made improvements on existing latrines and there are 18.3% more clean latrines and 87.8% maintained them clean. Households with appropriate handwashing facilities increased by 17.1% of which 76% are used and 77.2% have both water and soap. The community is practicing safe waste management with 15.4% more recycling and 88.9% using it for compost. Safe food preparation has also seen a change with 9.3% adhering to clean surfaces and 14.5% increase in storage of utensils (using pot/dish racks) while 27.8% have changed to use fuel efficient stoves. Kitchen hygiene is improving with 23% of them having better ventilation in the cooking area while 24% more have proper kitchen floors. The promotion of kitchen gardens as a means to increase the vitamin uptake by the community has led to an additional 8.4% households creating them in their own backyards. Safe drainage of waste water also increased to 20%.
Overall the response from the community in the implementation of home works given after each dialogue session has been exceptional.