This campaign has now closed
How does a community living in a very remote village in Ethiopia get direct access to comprehensive health education? SafeHands for Mothers is working aggressively to address this difficulty by showing films on ‘making pregnancy safer’, ‘essential newborn care’, ‘obstetric fistula’ and ‘child marriages’ through the use of innovative portable Solar powered DVD players. The Solar powered portable DVD players have been manufactured by Dulas Ltd in Wales. The players are sufficiently robust to go into the side saddle of a camel and light enough to be carried in a backpack. They are innovative and a very user friendly piece equipment. Being able to show the films in places with no electricity is important and the films are a valuable tool for ensuring that high quality communication takes place.
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Situation
In Ethiopia, Health Extension Workers (HEWs - government appointed female village based primary health care workers) are trained by SafeHands for Mothers on how to use the DVD players and on generating community conversations on the content of the films. Currently there are 25,000 HEWs who work from rural health posts at the grass roots level. They often walk up to 6 hours a day, carrying the DVD players in backpacks, to reach the remote villages where they facilitate health education seminars and community conversations. These could happen in a woman’s mud hut, under a tree, in a community hall or in a classroom of a village school. At present, SafeHands for Mothers is working in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) and Population Council, Ethiopia to roll out our films through the DVD players. Our films are being shown in 42 Kebeles (villages) through 24 DVD players. The population of each Kebele is approximately 6,839. At present approximately 210 community members see the films on a weekly basis and engage in health educational conversations. HEWs encourage the use of family planning, immunisation, aspects of health and sanitation and advocate against child marriage and other harmful practices. For this project SafeHands for Mothers would like to fundraise for one solar powered DVD player for each of the 42 kebeles. This means that we would need an additional 18 DVD players. A fully equipped solar powered DVD player costs £1000 each. Our aim is to disseminate our films, through solar powered DVD players, to villages in all 700 Woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. This access to technology and film would increase awareness and contribute to a behavioural change towards harmful traditional practices and increase understanding of what can be done to prevent maternal and newborn deaths.