MIDEMO

Recognizing the high population of orphans and vulnerable children in the rural Kabale district of the country of Uganda, the need to support the vulnerable children through their households and meeting their educational needs was apparent to Sister Claudia Tukakuhebwa, Coordinator of The Rushoroza Community Based Health Care Programme. She and her team have set the goal of improving the lives and livelihoods of 802 orphans and other vulnerable children and 600 families within the setup of their homes and educational environment in the project area by year 2012.

Drawing inspiration, optimism and enthusiasm from the 7 Day MPH Program and the story of Amos, Sister Claudia and her team have pledged to '...begin making a difference as team, as individuals in our areas of operation to add what we have been doing qualitatively, efficiently and consistently because of this farther impetus...'. Their hard work thus far has resulted in the mobilization of 802 orphans and vulnerable children; reduction in the risk of these children becoming street kids; imparting vital life saving skills; awareness among community members of the rights and ways to assist orphans and vulnerable children. The utilization of counseling and guidance has increased the children's levels of self-esteem, reduced their stigma and reduced traumatic tensions and bereavement.

In September 2007 Felicia Sakala's (Africare, Zambia) decided her unique mission was "to improve the health status of the people of the Lundazi District of Eastern Province." After putting her ideas into the 7-Day MPH Project Plan, Felicia and her colleagues have reached almost 1300 community leaders and parents with her "Girls Need Education" program. The program emphasizes the importance of encouraging girls to access community health services; nearly 1400 girls were "sensitized" to this message and almost 700 girls had received services at health facilities by December 2007. You can read more about Felecia's work by reading the "Africare Success Story."

Tatu Mtambalike, (Africare, Tanzania) is committed to improving health and well being of the children in the Bahi district, and has developed and implemented the "Healthy, Educated Children Now (HEC-N) Project" in the Dodoma region. Her work incorporates the 7-Day MPH program concept that "health is everyone's job and everyone has a job," by involving the community and its leaders as well as district staff and volunteers. Tatu continually reaches her goals by focusing on reaching 1% at a time! Read more about her work at "Africare Success Story."

Elizabeth Ngoye (Africare, Tanzania) is working to improve the life standards of the people in her country. Since participating in the 7-Day MPH Program has consistently recruited new volunteers and identified and enrolled ever increasing numbers of children and women in maternal and child health programs, as well as starting new Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) support groups and women's clubs. Read more about Elizabeth's program at "Africare Success Story."

In the 7-Day MPH Program, Maggie Mzungu, (Africare, Malawi), decided her mission was to help improve the health of the children in the Ntcheu district is by building on the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy. She chose the Positive Deviance Hearth that targets underweight children between 6 months to five years using weight/age measurement and started to work 1% at a time. Maggie's program involved teaching mothers how good feeding practices that include properly prepared, nutritious food, are vital to a child's health. With the help of a project staff, Maggie developed nutritious recipes using locally grown food items to feed the children. Maggie has not stopped at teaching good food practices, her plan also includes the integration of good hygiene and sanitation practices to have a complete approach to child health that will have long term effects. Maggie will never give up and will continue expanding her program 1% at a time!

Deepak Paudel, MPH, (Nepal). As a community health specialist for Care International, Deepak already holds an MPH and has a successful career that he enjoys. Still he wanted to "gain a deeper understanding [of] public health issues..." After participating in the 7-Day MPH program Deepak found not only that his understanding of public health was greatly expanded, but that he also came away with a new motivation to serve the community. Deepak is using that motivation to achieve his 1%--and often more than that-every day and is proud to have to demonstrable results to share with others.

Syed Abdul Qayoom, (Pakistan) developed his 7-Day MPH project and is using social and community mobilization to implement his plan of improving provider communication within the community to offer greater family planning and maternal, newborn and child healthcounseling and services. By identifying and targeting key audiences within the community, Syed is working to instill positive health and behavioral changes that will lead to improved maternal, neonatal, and reproductive health. Syed's efforts to involve influential people within the community had led to the kind of support that is crucial to bringing about real change!

Moe Kyaw Than, (Myanmar) developed his unique mission to immunize children from 3000 households by the end of 2007 when he completed ted his 7-Day MPH. Enlisting the help of community volunteers and the township health department, Moe initially used incentives such as free soap and honorary celebrations of mothers who had their children immunized to get the greatest participation. He also had the volunteers stay in the villages to work on improving the health knowledge of the community with the help of mass media. These social mobilization efforts lead to a high level of community participation in the immunization project and Moe continues to use all that he learned in the initial phase of his program to regularly increase immunizations. As he begins expanding his objectives to immunizing ever greater numbers of children, Moe is adding work toward Millennium Development Goal #4, reducing child mortality in children five and younger, and has set his sights on the eradication of poverty and the access to primary education for the children of Myanmar.

Rowan Wagner, (Uzbekistan) is working to improve the health of women and children in Uzbekistan through direct health interventions and by addressing core challenges that impede their ability to access health, starting with immunizations. He applied all the principles of the 7-Day MPH and enlisted the support of all stakeholders. . He helped to ensure that as many marginalized people as possible were counted and planned for in the micro-planning process done by WHO and the Ministry of Health in the national immunization days. In addition to ensuring that the right amount of vaccines, support budget etc. are ordered, he also helped to see that immunization messages were produced in non-authorized languages (Tajik, Farsi and Karkalpak) and that the materials got distributed to key decision makers in representative diasporas. Additionally, Rowan is working with a major newspaper (Uzbekistan Today) to see that MoH/UNICEF materials go beyond the big papers to broadsheets printed by local NGOs and diasporas.

Relly Yosi, (Papua New Guinea). As a Health Officer with the Water and Sanitation team, Relly's job was conducting baseline surveys to help identify key health issues when she joined the 7-Day MPH Program. While Relly thought that overall the program was working, she believed that to bring about real, lasting change the people they serve could benefit from some additional follow-up to help keep them focused. As her 7-Day MPH project, Relly is working on improving the treatment of Malaria in children. She designed a simple checklist and is implementing follow-up visits at three-months as a means of ensuring success with quality, efficiency and consistency for every child, 1% at a time, of course!

Tamar Chitashvili. Since, participating in the 7-Day MPH, Tamar has obtained a scholarship for her graduate studies in the USA, and participated in 2008 Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, a program of Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of United States Department of State, and Implemented by International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). She has been awarded a fellowship for a two year degree program (Master of Science in Health Policy and Management) in the University of Southern Maine, Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, Portland. She always remembers the "knowledge -bites" that together with her huge motivation and hard working skills enabled her to move forward in her professional development.

Congratulations, Tamar! You did it, just 1% every day!