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Education and Health Promotion Programme - Nigeria

Country

Nigeria, Uganda

Region

Global, Africa

Programme Summary

Organised by the Fantsuam Foundation, the Education and Health Programme Initiative addresses rural community health workers in Nigeria (most of whom are women) as well as adolescents. It utilises information and communication technologies (ICTs) to foster the exchange of information about, and to improve the provision of, health care.

Communication Strategies

This programme consists in the following activities:

  • Distribution of copies of the newsletters "Straight Talk" and "Young Talk" to secondary school libraries in participating communities. These newsletters carry news items, photographs, and articles written by adolescents in Kampala Uganda on reproductive health issues
  • Periodic health screening sessions that are led by a health officer and that include group discussions, individual counseling, and treatments. The women at Kpunyai set up a first aid unit for their village, the financial implications of which are discussed during weekly meetings
  • A class to teach basic computer skills to girls and women at the Bayanloco Community Learning Center. Health information, especially on reproductive health issues, is provided.
  • The development of Asibitin Karkara, a demand-driven primary healthcare model aimed at building a sustainable health service through partnerships with rural communities. This initiative builds on the strength of the extended family system and the willingness of people to pay for their health service in cash or in kind.
  • A Mobile Rural Library and ICT Service (MRLIS) objective that works with 40 rural communities to help provide textbooks for their schools and access to information from national, regional, and international sources. This service also provides facilities for rural-based teachers to enroll in distance learning programmes to improve skills and update their knowledge. Retention of pupils in schools is encouraged through the provision of a school lunch to each primary school child.
  • The initiation of contacts with a Nigerian university department for collaborative research in one of the rural communities where the source of water is a health hazard.This research includes:
    • Determining the links between public health and community-level relationships and networks
    • Analysing the social capital of communities, that is, identifying aspects of rural community life that promote health and ameliorate suffering caused by onchocerciasis or River Blindness
    • Developing a community assets map that describes distinct levels of community strengths: individuals; citizen associations such as churches, cultural and peer groups; and local institutions like schools, libraries, hospitals, universities, etc.
    • Identifing strategic alliances for sustainable funding of community health projects.

Development Issues

Education, Youth, Women, Health, Technology.

Key Points

Established in 1996, Fantsuam Foundation is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) located in Nigeria, about 600 miles from Lagos in the north-central part of the country. Fantsuam works to alleviate poverty through participatory decision making that utilises local beliefs as a primary mechanism for setting project priorities. Thus, its primary project partners are women's clan groups, which are non-religious and non-political. These groups are located in Kaduna, Benue, Gombe and Plateau States; between them they have membership of about 3,000. Each participating community and women's group provides volunteers who undertake various activities and training relevant to their project. These volunteers work with Fantsuam's three-member Board of Trustees, made up of Nigerian professionals who determine policy matters. A five-member National Management Committee implements activities.


Fantsuam Foundation also works:

  • to provide collateral-free microcredits for women
  • to promote rural health and education
  • to document local languages in an effort to improve women's access to literacy and education, indigenous knowledge, and traditional medicine, as well as to protect the intellectual property rights of rural communities, and
  • to collaborate with government agencies, Nigerian university departments, and Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora.

Partners

Urban Nigerians, Nigerian professionals, and members of a Nigerian university department; women's clan groups including Bechechet Bayinring, Fido, Mangu, Dogon Kurmi, Bayanloco, Zagun, Tula and Uwaba-Oju.

Contact

Fantsuam Foundation (Nigeria)
No. 1 Fantsuam Close
P. O. Box 58
Bayan Loco, Kafanchan
Kaduna State
Nigeria
Tel: +2348065302297/ +2348025595924

Fantsuam Foundation (UK)
14 Chandos Avenue
Leeds LS8 1QU
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 113 2690978
info@fantsuam.org
Fantsuam Foundation website

Source

Fantsuam Foundation website.


Placed on the Communication Initiative site July 09 2002
Last Updated August 20 2008

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