|
News
and Events
Church
World Service Hotline for the week of November 15, 2010--available in
Spanish (linea de noticias) and in podcasts
in English
and
Spanish--at www.churchworldservice.org
Vietnam
--Families
in six villages in Phuc Thuan community are working to improve the
hygiene in their villages by constructing latrines and more sanitary
pigsties. The people of the
area have suffered a high incidence of water-related disease.
Through this program, families are learning about the benefits of
the more hygienic structures, and are contributing labor and a portion
of the cost of construction, including providing some of the materials. The
villagers are also learning about the importance of environmental
sanitation and good personal hygiene in relation to communicable
diseases.
Says a leader from Dam Ban village, “When
we learned that the latrine model was very suitable to our village
sanitation needs, my wife and I decided to build one.
“After we completed the construction and have now used the
latrine for some time, my family finds it a very good thing.
My wife and I have guided and encouraged our relatives to build
latrines, as well.”
Some 362 people are benefiting from the project, and are now
using 61 new latrines and 21 new pigsties.
| A study visit to Bac Ha and
Si Ma Cai districts in Lao Cai province
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 |
|
 |
First-aid training for
school teachers and health workers
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 28th and 29th 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.
|
| IEC activities
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
|
Testing of the water
|
World Water Monitoring Day - Phuc Thuan
For CWS Vietnam, Information – Education – Communication (IEC) has
become an annual activity within its projects in order to raise
awareness and encourage increased hygienic behavior of local
communities at its project sites. The program was organized on October
13th, 2007 in the Phuc Thuan Primary School No 1, Pho Yen district,
Thai Nguyen province as part of the "Community Water System and
Education Development" project to participate in the World Water
Monitoring Day™, an international education and outreach program that
builds public awareness and involvement to protect water resources
around the world. With easy-to-use test kits, more than 250 school
teachers and students had a chance for the first time to conduct basic
monitoring of their local water bodies for a core set of water quality
parameters including temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity) and
dissolved oxygen (DO), along with other designed fun activities.
|
|
