| Reporting Organization: | Effect Hope |
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| Total Budget ($CAD): | $ 5,420,654 |
| Timeframe: | March 16, 2016 - September 30, 2022 |
| Status: | Implementation |
| Contact Information: |
Maneesh Phillip [email protected] |
| Kenya - $ 2,872,946.62 (53.00%) | |
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| Côte d’Ivoire - $ 2,547,707.38 (47.00%) | |
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| Neglected Tropical Diseases (42 %) | |
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| Nutrition (42 %) | |
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| Health Promotion & Education (8 %) | |
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| Health Systems, Training & Infrastructure (4 %) | |
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| Law, Governance & Public Policy (4 %) | |
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This project aims to serve children less than five years of age with vitamin A supplementation and de-worming programs in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. The mortality rate for children less than five years of age is 73/1000 live births in Kenya and 108/1000, in Côte d’Ivoire, in 2015. Vitamin A deficiency and worm infection causes and worsens malnutrition, anemia and diseases, particularly diarrheal diseases, which are a leading cause of death for children less than five years of age in these countries. Currently, these services are provided in both countries through schools, leaving children younger than five years unreached; a gap which this project is addressing. This project is providing improved delivery of these essential health services in communities where the actual coverage for children under five years of age is low. Project activities include: (1) increasing access to vitamin A and preventative de-worming treatments using existing community-based delivery systems; (2) strengthening the local health care system by training local health workers and community health volunteers in vitamin A supplementation and de-worming; (3) creating and utilizing a standardized toolkit for training on the implementation of responsive combined deworming and Vitamin A supplementation program targeting pre-school aged children; and (4) improving community engagement around vitamin A deficiency and de-worming in young children through responsive communication and engagement plans implementation as well as participatory activities with communities members, community leaderships and health structures and other gender equality and women’s groups. The local partners are MAP International in Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire which implement this project in 6 regions of Côte d’Ivoire (Gneby-Tiassa-Me, Bélier, Bounkani-Gontougo, Gbeke, Gôh and Indenie Duablin) and in three counties of Kenya (Siaya, Kwale and Kilifi). Vitamin Angels, a US-based NGO, is also a partner and provides in-kind contributions of albendazole (de-worming treatments) and for the duration of the project. This project directly impacts 1.8 million children and 16,600 adults working as community health workers or volunteers. It will also indirectly impact more than 5 million people who will benefit from positive outcomes on health in the community.
| Gender and age: | Children, girls Children, boys Under-5 children Adult women Adult men |
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| Descriptors: | Urban Rural |
| Total Direct Population: | 2,612,700 |
| Total Indirect Population: | 5,000,000 |
| 13,035,115 | Drug administration |
| 11,751,315 | Drug administration |
| 32,644 | Health worker training |
| 3,667 | Awareness education |
The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased capacity of health systems to deliver de-worming and vitamin A programs for children under five years; (2) increased provision of preventative de-worming treatments and vitamin A supplements to children under five years; (3) increased knowledge and community support for de-worming, vitamin A supplementation, and the promotion of women’s decision-making and male involvement to achieve positive maternal child health outcomes; and (4) programming that effectively addresses gender equality and inclusion barriers in combined de-worming and vitamin A supplementation programming.
The Every Child Thrives project is providing girls and boys under 5 years old with combined deworming treatment and vitamin A supplementation critical for good nutrition and their healthy development and growth. In Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya, the deworming drugs and vitamin A supplements are given to children during mass campaigns organized by the Ministry of Health to ensure the children receive the recommended 2 doses per year. To date, 9 campaigns have been conducted in each country to provide the combined deworming treatment and vitamin A supplementation to children under 5 years old.
The coverage rate for deworming and Vitamin A was 90% in Côte d’Ivoire. In Kenya, the coverage rate for deworming vitamin A was 79%.
Data collection for deworming and vitamin A supplementation during campaigns now includes sex-disaggregated data in all project areas , using standardized tools developed with government officials. The Ministries of Health are also adding sex-disaggregated data collection for other nutrition interventions.
The Every Child Thrives project trained health personnel and Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to improve their ability to deliver combined deworming and vitamin A supplementation with consideration for gender equality issues. The health personnel look for all boys and girls, even those who have a disability and may be hidden by their families, to give them the preventive treatment. They were also trained to help both mothers and fathers understand its importance to their children’s health, so there is support of both parents for receiving the service.
Another objective of the training was to increase knowledge of gender equality issues related to combined deworming and vitamin A supplementation services, and to child health generally. After training with Ministry of Health officials, health personnel, volunteers and teachers, 100% of participants in Côte d’Ivoire and 90% of participants in Kenya had a better comprehension of gender equality, inclusion, and their importance.
