Training and establishment of the CHCs and the extension of the FP and STD concepts in the pilot district of Kavaja - Albania
Training of 24 volunteers of IHA by SEATS / USAID experts. They became Training of the Trainers (ToTs) for the Community Health Committee members formed by IHA.
Start date
End date
24 Jul 2000
23 Oct 2001
Donors
World Learning / USAID
Partners
SEATS / USAID, Ministry of Health - Albania, Institute of Public Health - Albania, UNFPA
Goal
To change the old mentality of community people in the rural areas of Kavaja / Albania, related to Family Planning and Sexually transmitted Disease issues.
Objectives
To institute one PILOT project on FP and STD issues in the community people of Kavaja district. This will develop a sustainable, effective, efficient and appropriate cadre of Family Planning and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the rural areas (community itself) and urban areas, and will improve its basic skills, in addition will re-orientate the health workers and the community in the modern FP practices. This strengthens the quality and sustainability of community-based health care in Kavaja.
Activities
The project is carried out in the following steps:
Training of the 24 IHA staff on Family Planning ans Sexually Transmitted Diseases issues.
An intensive training of 10 days is organised for 24 IHA volunteers, that were medical students or social workers. These volunteers are prepared to train the Community Health Committees (CHCs)that will be formed in each of the 9 communes of Kavaja district and the trained CHCs will distribute the information on FP and STDs to the community people of their villages.
Community Empowerment Stage
IHA volunteers trained in the previous Phase organised visits to the 9 communes of Kavaja to initiate the community empowerment activities, the assessment and the selection of the 15 members of the Community Health Committees (CHCs) in each of the 9 communes. They initially did field testing on STDs and FP knowledge’s, methods applied and how to prevent a Sexual Transmitted Diseases by discussing with the community people about the FP and STDs. At the same time regular discussions are done with the state health staff on how to make the project sustainable in the future after IHA completes the project. It is clarified that it will be the role of the state health personnel to keep collaborating with the CHCs in the future.
In this phase IHA volunteers also distributed free booklets and leaflets of information to the community people.
15 Community Health Committee members are selected from the community in each of the 9 communes. These members will be trained by IHA and will offer the community people the proper information on FP and STD issuesand refer them to the Health Posts and / or Health Centers for furthr and more detailed information and free contraceptives. This satisfies the community needs and in a continuous way (step by step), changes the old mentality and tradition.
Training of the Community Health Committee Staff
During this phase, IHA trained members will be used for the training of the 135 CHC members selected in the second phase. IHA will keep records of the work done, and will teach the CHC to work closely with the health personnel of HCs and HPs for the future continuation of the project. At the beginning of this project, IHA will be a link between the rural and urban area cooperation in Kavaja. After IHA leaves it is the DPH responsibility for the continuation of the connections with the HPs and HCs, and they are happy to do this. As a result, by the end of the project IHA has set up strong communication between the rural and urban areas.
Results
The project is completed with the recruitment of the IHA volunteer members and the local personnel and with the assistance of SEATS/USAID, the Ministry of Health / Albania and the Directory of Public Health of Kavaja. This project started as a Pilot project in the district of Kavaja with the hope to achieve the expected impact and to implement it in the other districts of Albania.
Additional Information
Post communist Albania poses many challenges to a Family Planning (FP)program, including tremendous need, poor conditions, and continued political instability. In that time the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) concept did not exist. The reproductive health during the Communist Era resulted pro-natalist policy during the 5 decades (50 years) of the communist rule.
Abortion and family planning were outlawed, allowing women only traditional and not very effective methods of controlling their fertility. First legally practiced of abortion started on 1991. This is why until 1997 FP methods were not applied.
With the newfound democracy the concepts on STDs became one of the biggest problems of a country, is was still very much a new principle especially in the rural areas. Over the last two years SEATS Project of USAID carried out training courses of the health personnel of the maternity hospital and of the primary health care level. The impact was very high in the urban areas, but very low in the (community level) communes and their villages.
FP and STDs are such important risk mostly to the young people, especially in the community level (villages) where the traditional concepts predominate, which should be solved.
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Training of 24 volunteers of IHA by SEATS / USAID experts. They became Training of the Trainers (ToTs) for the Community Health Committee members formed by IHA.
