How to use community nutrition action for child survival

 

This training package is divided into three modules, each containing a series of units on specific but related topics. Module units are further divided into session plans, handouts' reference materials and training exercises.

Training modules are designed to:

Part I

- Provide up-to-date information about the nutrition and health problems of women and young children

- Promote and enable the trainees to manage six basic community nutrition activities: growth monitoring, breastfeeding, home and village production of weaning foods, oral rehydration therapy, immunization and family planning

Part II

- Enable trainees to diagnose and work with the community to solve nutrition problems

- Develop trainee skills in nutrition project planning, including selection of interventions, work planning, budgeting and proposal writing

Part III

- Assist trainees to develop plans and instruments for managing critical elements of community nutrition programs: i.e. training for field workers and community volunteers; supervision of nutrition workers and community activities; and monitoring and evaluation of service delivery activities.

The three training modules can be adapted and used in their entirety to facilitate the development and successful management of community nutrition projects. Alternatively, modules and training units can be used separately in a variety of training and project development situations. Portions of this volume have been used in a variety of training situations in Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia and Senegal to:

- Improve nutrition intervention skills

- Improve the supervision of community nutrition activities

- Improve the coordination of community nutrition activities by health, nutrition, social service, family planning and agricultural extension workers

- Develop or improve planning and management skills

- Generate nutrition project plans and proposals

- Train nutrition field workers and volunteers

- Train trainers of nutrition field workers and volunteers

- Prepare for project evaluations.

Participatory and experiential training methodologies are suggested throughout these modules to facilitate learning and the development of problem-solving, planning and communication skills.

Adaptation of training materials is critical. Trainers and resource specialists familiar with local nutrition problems and programs and training techniques, should review and adapt all materials prior to their use in training workshops. Adaptation will include:

- Selecting training topics and exercises to match local training objectives, schedule and resources

- Organizing topics and exercises in logical sequence

- Modifying session plans, handouts, and reference materials to fit local language, customs, problems, etc. This includes developing locally appropriate case studies, etc.

- Adding training content and developing additional exercises if necessary

- After using the adapted training materials, evaluating and making recommendations for further modifications to improve future training.

CEDPA expects that you will find Community Nutrition Action for Child Survival a useful tool in your work. We welcome your feed-back and suggestions for they will be useful for future editions of this manual.