Child Health Improvement through Livelihood Development (CHILD)
October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2012
* Districts of Baray and Santuk, Kompong Thom Province
*Direct beneficiaries 1050 (Children under five 300, Pregnant Women 300, Parents and Caregivers 450)
* Indirect Beneficiaries 28,700 (family members in 30 villages)
* Budget: $336,920

* Donor/s: ADRA International, ADRA New Zealand, ICC Australia and ADRA Cambodia

The Child Project is designed to help children under six years old by helping parents know how to care for their children, because many children under six are dying from a few preventable and treatable conditions.

The causes of malnutrition include multiple factors, especially disease, inadequate food intake, poor caring practices, lack of access to health and basic services including safe water and sanitation facilities and poverty. Caretaker’s level of education and knowledge of appropriate child caring and rearing is limited. There is a correlation between mother education’s levels where those mothers who are completely illiterate have a higher percentage of malnourished children at 43.5% as compared to 25.9% and 25.1% of those who have attended primary school and secondary school or higher respectively.

In answer to this crisis, this CHILD project is improving maternal and child health by promoting knowledge and practices of 1,050 pregnant women, parent/care giver and children under six years in 30 villages of 11 Health Centers of Baray and Santuk Operational Heath District of Kampong Thom province – and area about two hours north of the Capital of Phnom Penh with a total population of 234,750. The goal of the project is to enhance a supportive community environment for rural children under six years old in Kompong Thom Province.

The project has three objectives, 1) To improve Maternal and Child preventive health practices of parents and caregiver, 2) To improve livelihoods of parents and caregiver, and 3) To improve child development practices of parents, caregivers and their communities. The project works in partnership with relevant government offices at district level such as Women’s Affairs, Non-formal Education, Health and Agriculture.

For both mother child health and early childhood education the project partners with UNICEF. All relevant government partners formed the Project Partner Committee (PPC) which has the main role of enabling the local community volunteers and structures (CVS) for sustainability addressing the community issues. The CVS included Health Centre, Village Health Support Group (VHSG), Reflect Facilitators, Commune Council and Child Friendly Village Committee (CFVC). The main roles of PPC included Support, Monitoring, Empowering, Coaching and Training (SMECT) to CVS. The PPC also provides regular feedback about project implementation and information flow of government related policy updates with project staff.

By using Reflect as the main Methodology, the CHILD project activities focus on building community knowledge and seeking for positive behavior changes among parents and caregivers for enhancing a supporting community environment for children under six. Practical application of new skills contributes towards increasing mental stimulation of these children. Through a three phase Reflect process, working with Child Friendly Village committees in each village, the activities progress from literacy focused, to personal/family and community development. They also aim to decrease the maternal and child mortality rate with a preventative health focus, partnering with UNICEF on ante-natal and pre natal care. Specific livelihood development activities are identified within Reflect Circles and communities to enable parents and caregivers to develop sustainable income generation. Livelihood development ensures that family members, especially children, have better nutritious food and access to social activities. The following actions complement the Reflect Circle Activities: Village Health Support Group capacity building, Health Center and Child Friendly Village Committee implementing Antenatal and Postnatal Care, Livelihood Development through the technical support to the interest groups, Role model selection and Networking with NGOs and Government Offices for effective implementation.

ADRA Cambodia has had over 15 years of extensive development experience – the past ten of which have been heavily involved in maternal and child health and livelihood programming and in the past four years ADRA has gained experience in implementing Reflect methodology. The innovative design of the proposed program is based on expertise gained and lessons learned during these years, the latest being that the Reflect Circle activities will be done in phases, the first year focusing on literacy, the second year focusing on livelihood development and the third year focusing on sustainable development, with literacy being a key empowerment ingredient through all phases.

--------------------
Go back to projects by location or portfolio