Community Mobilization for COMBI Antenatal and ECD Implementation

Project duration: April – December, 2005

Implementing organization: Programul Educațional Pas cu Pas/Step by Step Moldova

Implementing partner: UNICEF Moldova

Project overall goa: to enhance positive behavior patterns in pregnant women for the well-being of the expected baby and to trigger behavior changes in parents and other primary caregivers of children of age 3 and under that would help them ensure that their children reach school age not only healthy and well nourished, but intellectually curious, socially confident and equipped for life-long learning.

The project is part of the complex COMBI campaign aimed at changing behavior patterns in pregnant women and in young parents and is meant to improve the prognosis for a healthy mental and physical development of children countrywide.

Target groups:

• 12 national ECD and nurses’ trainers;
• 3000 representatives from 930 villages (75 training groups), 3 representatives per community : a pediatrician/nurse, a kindergarten or primary teacher, a middle/high school teacher;
• Ultimate beneficiaries: would-be mothers and families with young children in these communities.

Geographical location: 930 rural communities across Moldova

Project objectives:

(a) to ensure the baby’s mental and physical health by prompting pregnant women to start taking folic acid and iron supplements as early as possible and to take action on any of the 12 danger signs during pregnancy;

(b) to enhance the cognitive and psychosocial development of small children by improving parenting practices. The focus in (b) is mostly on children from 0 to 3, these three years being fundamental to their future intellectual and socio-psychological development. The types of targeted parent behavior are Reading and Playing/Hugging/Talking (PHT): Reading viewed as a separate and unique behavior, requiring dedicated time and motivation, and incorporating elements of the other three, since while reading one can play with, hug and talk to the child; Playing/Hugging/Talking to one’s child usually happening as natural part of interaction with the child.

Both reading and PHT are reportedly much less practiced in rural areas (the same holding for the antenatal practices), hence the need to target primarily this population using a number of  specially trained “personal sellers” at community level.

Project outcomes:

• An interdisciplinary team of health and ECD workers trained to promote a comprehensive approach to child development and early care (starting from pre-natal stage)
• 3000 packages of materials produced for dissemination, promoting (a) positive perinatal behavior (pregnant women taking folic acid and iron supplements as early as possible and acting promptly on any of the 12 danger signs during pregnancy), and (b) improved parental behavior (Reading and PHT)
• 3000 “personal sellers” at community level (pediatricians/nurses, kindergarten or primary teachers, and middle/high school teachers from 930 communities) trained through a cascade system of training will “sell” the materials to targeted beneficiaries in various ways: nurses would do it during home visits, in individual meetings at the family doctor’s office or in group meetings with pregnant women at the community Health Centers; teachers – while meeting with parents at the kindergarten or at school, visiting families; secondary and high school students – sharing these materials with their own families or with neighboring families.