The health and nutrition quality of a child highly contributes to their learning capacity, and ability to participate actively in different activities that require physical, mental and social efforts. Many children in Upper Egypt villages suffer from anemia and malnutrition. Addressing the issue of malnutrition and improving children health and sanitary practices in schools are among the fundamental objectives of AUEED.
In partnership with THE ASSOCIATION OF UPPER EGYPT FOR EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT (AUEED), PACHE co-finances a School Health Program (SHP) which offers balanced meals to students suffering from malnutrition and organizes health awareness sessions for the teachers, students and parents. The SHP also provides students with essential health services such as primary medical check-up and blood analysis for all students at the beginning of every school year. The program covers the treatment of anemia, eye and skin diseases as well as other common health issues in Upper Egypt.
Program’s Activities:
- Medical Check-up & Blood Analysis
- A general medical checkup is delivered at school to all students (around 5600) at the beginning of each school year. As a result, identified students with diseases are provided with the necessary treatment or referred to the appropriate health providers.
- Blood analysis are carried out for all students to identify those infected with anemia (Hemoglobin < 11.5). In 2022, those suffering from anemia reached 1360 students. Follow up checks and meetings with the nutritionist are provided.
- Nutrition and Medications
- Three nutritious hot meals are offered to anemic and students with malnutrition every week, even on days when schools are closed.
- Needed medications and supplements for students based on a plan set by a nutritionist.
- Children and Parents Activities
Fun activities with the children and awareness sessions for parents are offered to create awareness about healthy living and eating habits. A Child-to-Child approach is used where the main actors of change in the communities are the children themselves. In every school, a group of 25 students holds weekly meetings to assess, plan and implement activities with the whole school, parents, teachers and surrounding community.
The Child-to-Child approach applies a multi-step project:- Identification of major health problems
- Collection of information
- Planning interventions
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Planning for new interventions
Health coordinators in each school follow the above steps and create simple artistic representations and visual aids with health messages including posters, drawings, calendars, folders, songs, drama etc. and others.
- Health Camps with Children
Organizing camps where different groups meet and exchange their experiences, plan for initiatives and community campaigns. This year, due to Covid 19, this activity will not be implemented. - Training, Follow-up and Implementation
At the beginning of the year, schools develop plans and budgets with the local supervisor. This is discussed and revised at the Program level and included in the project. Training, follow-up and monitoring activities are also planned to build the capacity at the school level and follow-up on implementation. A final report is prepared at the end of the year.