An International Study Tour focussed on the GTZ Project on ‘Awareness-raising and Life-skills Development for AHI Prevention and Control in -Schools in Indonesia’
Yogyakarta, 18-20 February, Development practitioners from Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand visited GTZ’s Bird Flu Awareness in Primary Schools (BAPS) initiative as an innovative approach to strengthen community based management of Avian Influenza in Asia. The school-based bird flu awareness initiative has been developed by the (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit- GTZ) on behalf of the German Government and is currently in the second pilot phase. It is the only initiative in Asia that explicitly uses a school-based approach to increase awareness and promote prevention to halt the spread of the virus. Community practitioners from several countries were interested to learn more about the school-based awareness programs that can reach out to teachers, pupils, parents and the extended community.
GTZ Indonesia hosted a three-day international Study Tour, organized by the AHI-NGO-RC/RC-Asia Partnership, involving participants from CBOs, NGOs and Red Cross/Red Crescent societies working in community-based AHI management in their respective countries of Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand. The study tour is part of the project on ‘Strengthening Community-Based Approaches to Management of AHI in Asia’ being implemented by the AHI-NGO-RC/RC-Asia Partnership – comprised of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), CARE, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) – and is funded by the Canadian Government via the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The three-day event was officially opened by the Director for Kindergarten and Primary Schools Development of the Ministry of National Education and the Head of Provincial Education Administration in Yogyakarta. Key note speeches were delivered by the Indonesian National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, the Regional Working Group III of the National Committee in Yogyakarta as well as GTZ Task Force for Avian Influenza and GTZ BAPS.
The “Bird Flu Awareness in Primary Schools” package consists of teacher trainings, teaching aids, accompanying school booklets for children and information material for the school administration and parents as well as parent information sessions. This broad range of tools allows reaching out to teachers, pupils and their families and the surrounding community at large. Primary school teachers are trained to integrate information on the prevention and control of bird flu into the existing curricula. In the first phase of the program teachers were directly trained using four core training modules on Avian Influenza and personal and community prevention and control measures and accompanying modules focusing on the teaching techniques and curricula integration. In the second pilot phase an approach to increase coverage is being tested by applying a cascade approach and training advisory teachers that are responsible for trainings in already established teacher working groups – thus being able to multiply the number of those being trained effectively. This approach is currently being further developed and used for teacher training centres in the course of the next months.
There has been considerable success since the since December 2007: More than 2 thousand teachers were trained in seven provinces which means that approximately 50 thousand primary school children have learnt about prevention of bird flu in school. More than 95 thousand parents have received written information that highlights the importance of raising awareness preventing their children and families about bird flu.
During presentations and subsequent field trips to three schools in the Yogyakarta area study tour participants were provided with the experiences of and lessons identified by GTZ Indonesia in school-based awareness-raising and life-skills development in Indonesia; and an understanding of the issues and priorities in working with school children in the context of AHI management in Asia. The study tour participants on the other hand brought in experiences and good practices from their respective countries.
One critical component of the study tour was the focus group discussions, involving parents, teachers and students at two schools under the BAPS Project, where various issues were surrounding risk prevention were explored. The study tour participants exchanged their views possible socio-cultural factors that might influence the ways that AHI risks are perceived/understood in their communities, economic and social factors that might act as barriers to behavior change and risk reduction, and last but not least factors that might make projects for promoting awareness/risk reduction more successful and sustainable.
• successes and challenges of different approaches to behavior change and life-skills development
• key lessons for community-based AHI management, that can be shared with other organizations and practitioners throughout Asia.
The event last week highlighted the importance of cross-country exchange of lessons learnt and good practices. Difficulties in reaching communities as well as the importance of achieving behavior change when developing programs on risk communication and prevention were discussed.
The Study Tour especially highlighted the importance of children as the most receptive group when aiming for behavior change.
Johanna Knoess on behalf of GTZ or Tel: +62 (0) 21 579 00 334
Email: j_knoess@yahoo.com or Endang Setiawidi: endang.setiawidi@gtz.de
Janette Lauza-Ugsang on behalf of ADPC Tel: +66 (0) 2 298 0681 to 92 Ext 404
Email: janette@adpc.net
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