CHL Project Year One Highlights (PDF)

							CHL Project Year One Highlights (PDF)
In Project Year One (PY1) CHL worked through the joint planning stage and began joint
implementation of project activities. CHL’s cross-cutting program is achieving an
unprecedented level of joint implementation among the MOHP sectors of Family
Planning/Reproductive Health, Healthy Mother/Healthy Child, Focus on Family Health,
Infectious Disease Surveillance and Response, and the State Information Service together
with project partners in the NGO and private sectors. To date, CHL has reached close to 800
outreach workers and health care providers through Step Down trainings and Orientation
workshops. A new partnership was forged between the MOHP and the Ministry of the Interior
resulting in a highly successful program to reach over 800,000 mostly illiterate young men in
the police security forces. Seminars and entertaining dramas produced by the SIS serve as
vehicles for communicating health messages, and the program has been so well-received by
police officials that they requested and received their own TOT, held in Ismaileya in
September. CHL is well on its way of achieving its goal of reaching all members of the police
forces—more than one million—by the end of the year.

The early establishment of the CHL Executive Steering Committee (ESC) allowed rapid
progress on other program components. Workplans for both PY1 and PY2 for the MOHP,
MOHP-SIS, and NGO-CDA show a high level of coordination for joint activities and
production of IEC materials across health directorates. Family Health weeks in all six project
governorates have proved a successful way to engage local stakeholders—government
officials, health professionals, community leaders and the public—in support of campaign
messages and coordinated efforts, and partners have conducted almost 20 health weeks with
cross-cutting messages.

One of the most significant achievements was the El Minya Group Wedding publicity event,
as it served not only as the official launch of the national family health campaign with the
slogan, “Sahatek, Sarwatek” (Your Health, Your Fortune), but also as a demonstration of the
effectiveness of CHLs cross-cutting approach: Messages targeted at Newlyweds came from
all MOHP directorates (FP/RH, HM/HC, IDSR, FFH) and had relevance for virtually a ll life
stages. Partners from the public, private, and NGO sectors all played vital roles in making the
event a success, and CHL facilitated coordination within and among these sectors at the
national and local level.

The 150 participating couples received copies of the CHL-produced Mabrouk! booklet, with
health messages developed through a collaborative effort involving all project partners. A
component of the NewlyWed Initiative, which places marriage as the entry point to a series of
behaviors oriented around family life that have long- lasting impact on the health of the family,
the Mabrouk book is being distributed to newlywed couples throughout the country by health
outreach workers, maazouns (marriage registrars) and priests. Celebrity television host Tareq
El Allam was recruited to incorporate messages from the Mabrouk guide into a “NewlyWed
Game” segment in the popular television variety show series, “Adfal” (The Best) airing for 30
days in a row during Ramadan. Participating newlywed couples have the chance to win prizes
donated by private sector sponsors by answering questions related to information in the family
health campaign.
CHL successfully engaged several private sector partners in support of our work. In addition
to Toshiba-El Araby, who provided the grand prizes for the El Minya wedding event, Procter
and Gamble, Vodaphone, Enjoy Foods, and Sila Cooking Oil aligned themselves with the
campaign through sponsorship, and provided a number of give-away items to the couples.
Most significantly, a tripartite MOU between JHU-HCP, Catalyst/Tahseen, and Procter and
Gamble was finalized at the end of September. The ultimate objective of the strategic
collaboration is to improve awareness of women's reproductive health matters in Egypt by
developing and implementing action-oriented and sustainable programs that result in
measurable behavioral change and improved health status.

Other activities in the private sector program during PYI have largely been directed at
strategic planning for the revitalization of the Ask-Consult/Istaal Istashir and Gold Star
programs, including the development of an RFP and selection of agencies to manage
implementation of the program, set to begin PY2. CHL has been leading the planning of
service marketing plans for the 4,000 MOHP Family Planning FFH clinics. In El Minya, CHL
assisted both CSI and Tahseen develop service marketing plans for their renovated clinics.
The media have come on board as campaign partners and a large number of programs and
articles on campaign topics appeared even prior to the official launch of the campaign. The El
Minya Group Wedding was proved highly successful as a major publicity event for the
campaign, drawing local, national, and regional media. It was featured on Upper Egypt’s
Channel 7, Lebanon’s satellite broadcast channel Al Jazeera, Youth and Sports Radio, and
from the press, El Gomhoriya, El Hawaa, Al Ahram, El Akhbar, Akher-Sa’a, Nos El Dunya,
Egypt Today and Carnival. Program representatives from the MOHP have appeared on more
than 15 radio and television talk shows throughout the year promoting campaign messages.

In regards to materials, in addition to the Mabrouk booklet, print materials produced during
PYI include the Mabrouk! booklet for Newlywed couples, a flip chart for health outreach
workers, an optimal birth spacing poster, a poster for the newlywed initiative, and a press
insert on HIV/AIDS. CHL also fielded an RFP for SIS and awarded a contract for twelve new
television spots, and TV and radio spots on family planning and reproductive health produced
by the SIS continue to air at a very high reach and frequency. CHL staff also provided
technical assistance to the MOHP in redesigning their logo and pretesting the logo for the
family health units, and are assisting FFH to produce a documentary film.

On a local level, the CDA- led focal village programs have begun a number of family health
interventions. The baseline survey was completed in El Minya, as well as village health
assessments. Female leadership trained in the AWSO program have proved highly motivated
and competent, and more than 100 women have attended biweekly AWSO meetings
organized over a six- month period in several villages where they participate as active agents
in the community to assist community members to access needed services and solve
problems. Graduates of the AWSO training are preparing to conduct a series of home visits
with women. Primipera classes are underway in El Minya, with over 50 women attending
structured learning sessions to prepare for the first birth. Parallel to this activity, local health
units and staff have been prepared, equipped and trained to follow MOHP ante-natal care
protocol. Dawar meetings for male village leaders are continuing, and over 11 meetings were
held in Minya the first year. CHL has been playing a lesser role in recent meetings as the
program takes on a life of its own towards sustainability.

Selected CDAs in El Minya were trained to conduct household/village health profiles, which
have now been completed, along with a tracking system to monitor focus village activities.
Three veteran CDAs have been identified as Living Universities to participate in the selection
of future CDAs and villages, and in implementing capacity building plans and monitoring
program interventions. The program has begun to roll out in Fayoum and Qena, and is
currently being modified according to lessons learned to achieve greater impact.
Implementation activities are scheduled for all project governorates in PY2.