1. Project description

This project will target two new villages in the same two kebeles of the previous intervention and addresses 120 women and their husbands focusing on three major intervention areas. First, it will strengthen the maternity center that serves as a life-saving boat for pregnant mothers who are coming from distant areas. Therefore, the maternity center will be furnished with essential equipment to provide better services. Interactive training for lactating mothers (0 – 1 year babies) on feeding and infant care to prevent child wasting that results from inadequate nutrition, awareness and practice. An end-line survey from the 2022 MCH project indicated that 3 out of 10 mothers believe in butter feeding at birth.

Before the intervention, it was 8 out of 10 respondents. The improvement by 50% is a good opportunity to scale it up to reduce the remaining 30% by at least 20%. Out of 120 targeted lactating and pregnant mothers, 102 believe that giving birth at home with the help of traditional birth attendants is dangerous for the mother and the baby. This improved by 93% from the baseline result. This will be one of the indicators to scale it up to other villages to save more lives and consolidate the impact. There are unreached villages and communities with high rates of unsafe practices. Compared to the reached targets and the unreached, 80% practice butter feeding for their babies during their first week of birth. In addition, 92% of mothers introduce the usual family spicy diet for their babies after 3 months of birth. while in the intervention community, it is 30% and 20% respectively. Therefore, the consolidation and scaling up of training focusing on infant care is the priority of this project. The training will be accompanied by a series of monthly Conversation sessions. The third focus is the establishment of a Women\\\\\\\'s Health promoter Amy(Women-Health-Army). This group will be responsible to watch over their neighbors and prompt MCH, identifying and registering pregnant women, closely working with health extension workers and reporting the status of women in their village. They will be trained and equipped with the necessary procedures to work closely with the Community Health Extension Workers (CHW). 

2. Project progress up to now

1. Foundation 

Step one: To enact the project in the legal framework and give official credit to the funding organization. An MoU was signed between Sentinel Ethiopia and District Women and Children’s Affairs Office, District Health Office, and District Economic and Financial Cooperation Office. 

Step two: Familiarization workshop with District signatories and Village leaders to clearly show the goal of the project and how it will be implemented. After the familiarization, the stakeholders and village leaders went back to the target selection. 

The project targeted the selection from two new villages of the Addis Amba and Gelila kebeles which were not targeted last year. A total of 120 lactating and pregnant mothers have been selected. 

The final stage for this process was starting the  Community Conversation(CC) sessions. Starting from May, a total of 3 CC have been conducted at two centers effectively for both the pregnant and lactating mothers. 

1. Training 

2.1 Women Health Promotion Army 

A total of 15 women were trained to support the project\\\\\\\'s effective implementation and sustain change in the target kebele. The training focused on Leadership, communication, and the care for infants and pregnant mothers. After the training, the Women\\\\\\\'s Health Army signed a commitment agreement with the project and village leaders to remain active promoters and mobilizers of women to use the health services. Any birth-related maternal or infant mortality will not be tolerated if found at home. This is a crime against the lives of infants and therefore, every women\\\\\\\'s health army has an accountability to report pregnancy cases to their nearest health Post(call center). 

2.2. Training for Village leaders and community representatives

The leadership of the village does have a greater impact to mobilize the community for any action. Therefore, the village leaders and religious leaders were targeted to take a 3 day on the problem the community is facing in regard to infrastructure and accessibility. For this purpose, 12 representatives attended the training and agreed to collaborate in the implementation of MCH in their respective villages. 

3. Project plan forward

The remaining major activity is facilitating the Advocacy meeting for the renovation of the Health Center and resource mobilization through showing the effort of Korea Sh and Sentinel Ethiopia to tackle the problem. Following this, the MCH forum will be held at the District level to awaken the local government and other interested parties for lasting solutions on accessibility and service availability. Finally, renovation of the Health post will be done through mobilization and resource allocation. 

4. Photos

Meetings with the community to introduce the MCH

Selected Women Health promoters Army 

Registration of pregnant and lactating mothers at Gelila kebele 

First round meeting of the women Health promoters Army at Addis Amba kebele 

A mother sharing her experience how to take care of children 

Project familiarisation and training for Women Health promoters Army