The Start of Healthy Households

I'm so excited that I FINALLY got to start my primary project, Healthy Households. The grant took forever to process, then I received funds in April, was gone most of the month of May, and finally had the first meeting on June 2. 14 ACs are participating although I'm expecting 3-4 to drop out. Just being realistic.

I scheduled with each of the 14 ACs individually to visit two of their six households with them. We spent the first month doing baseline surveys to get a general idea of each houses' overall health situation. I really liked seeing the houses and meeting the participants. I truly believe in this project and that it will help the participants. For example, one mother said that she was giving her 4 month old baby coffee. My AC did a wonderful job educating her in a gentle manner that she should be exclusively breastfeeding, and that it's not a good idea to give a child of any age coffee. This program will also greatly improve the AC's knowledge and presentation skills. I set up a training for them on behavior change communication lead by a friend from Ambato and I've already seen the benefits of this training through the ACs increased confidence when administering the surveys.

72 of the 84 surveys were returned to me and I thoroughly read each one. I recorded the percent of participants who gave birth at the hospital, use birth control, clean their drinking water, have less than or greater than 4 kids, have an intestinal disease more than once every month, etc. At the end of this 8 month program, the ACs will administer the baseline survey again and I'll compare the data. The ACs also do a monthly survey to track the participants progress through the coming months.

I'll visit households with each AC individually for the first three months of the program and then they will be on their own to educate on safe motherhood, family planning, baby vaccines, respiratory infections, intestinal diseases, safe drinking water, and nutrition. I'm so excited to be working on this project with so much involvement from the community. There is a lot prep work, trainings, house visits, and survey/data collection involved but I feel so energized due to the motivation and dedication of my wonderful ACs.

You know you're a PCV when:
-You never know when a dance party will break out with your Malagasy friends
-You never know when you'll break into an impromptu solo dance party.