On 17 and 18 April 2008, a cross visit arranged by the Education Project Management Unit (PMU), made it possible for 13 officers of Muong Te Education Department and teachers of kindergarten, primary and junior secondary schools to visit Bac Ha and Si Ma Cai districts in Lao Cai province to learn from experiences made in a project run by Enfants & Développement (E&D-France). They were all very impressed and enthusiastic about what they saw, especially when it comes to:  

•  Child friendly libraries

•  Methods for how to manage boarding and semi-boarding students

• Organization of extracurricular activities to attract students

• Child centered teaching methodology

•  Mobilization and involvement of the community in education

•  Efficiency of IEC within education

The visit has created great interest and the Muong Te delegation wishes to replicate these ideas in their project areas.

The child—friendly libraries in Bac Ha and Si Ma Cai have been a great success

Muong Te is a mountainous and remote district that is located far from the province centre; transportation conditions are difficult with many rivers and streams. Accidents of different kinds are common, such as: traffic accidents, landslides, drowning, snakebites etc… So, first aid skills are very necessary and important for saving lives, and to prevent and minimize effects of such incidents, especially for children who are very active and playful. Therefore, on 28^th and 29^th April, 2008, a first aid training course was held for 22 trainees who are teachers of kindergarten, primary and junior secondary schools of Bum Nua, Bum To and Pa Ve Su in order to provide them with knowledge and basic skills in First Aid.

Besides, two staff from Muong Te Health Centre attended in order to assist the trainer of the course and to improve their training skills for future training sessions. After the training one first aid kit was given for each of the 14 school ports that had teachers participating in the training.

In April 2008, CWS program staff and our IEC consultant worked closely together on development of IEC materials for Muong Te district. An IEC action plan for the period 2008 – 2010 was established and the purpose of this plan is to raise awareness of the necessity for clean water, the need for better personal hygiene habits, and environmental sanitation, all with the aim to reduce diseases related to water, and to improve the health in the community.

The IEC material which is being developed for the period 2008 – 2010, consists of: a three-year wall calendar and two posters. These IEC documents will have very detailed messages and instructions, which are very easy to understand and will hopefully bring effective changes to the hygiene behavior in the community.

Parallel to this, the group of IEC networking collaborators from village to commune levels that were established in 2008 is now covering nine villages in Bum Nua commune. Up to now they are working fairly well. They are mainly staff of the project associated with the project PMU. The IEC collaborators have monthly meetings at the commune’s People Committee in order to share experiences and to build activity plans for the following month.

Proposal for new IEC material

• World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) in Phuc Thuan

• IEC Plan Meeting in Hue

• Muong Te Project Steering Committee Meeting in Sa Pa

• Hygiene is Fun

• Construction is not enough!

• Long An Health Department: A Promising Future

• Mr. Tien: Headmaster holds door open to ethnic minority students

• Vietnam news article on March 09, 2005

Collecting water samples

Testing of the water