Overall targets
The overall objective of the intervention in this final consolidation phase is to improve the oral and general health of school children and vulnerable families in Rwanda by promoting and integrating sustainable school-based health initiatives and community outreach activities. The knowledge and good results gathered from the previous project and in this proposed project will be used as a tool to advocate for a national action plan on oral health. The project design contains three key elements: 1) Capacity building – an expansion and intensification of the capacity-building advocacy work based on the Oral Health Promotion Committee (OHPC), with gradual transfer of responsibility. The Committee was established through the current cooperation between Tandsundhed Uden Grænser (TUG) and SOS Children’s Villages in Rwanda (SOS RW). 2) School-based activities – daily tooth brushing and handwashing programs in a selected number of primary schools ready to take over the responsibility for the activities before the end of the project period. One school will be appointed a ‘Center of Excellence,’ and, as a new expanded initiative, all students of dental therapy and dental surgery from the Rwandan School of Dentistry will be required to do obligatory outreach activities at the schools as part of their curriculum. 3) Community work among vulnerable families – as another innovation, the project will undertake training and education of Home Based Care Practitioners and volunteers working with vulnerable families to convey oral and general health skills.
Immediate targets
Immediate objectives: 1. By the end of the project, the intervention schools have gradually taken over the full responsibility for the hygiene and education activities of the program, both financially and technically, in collaboration with parents and districts without loss of effectiveness. 2. By the end of the project, awareness has been raised on the importance of implementing daily oral health and general health routines (toothbrushing and handwashing) among vulnerable families (FSP families), and the frequency of regular hygiene activities has been increased. 3. By the end of the project, Oral Healt Promotion Committee (OHPC) has facilitated initiatives of the central administration in Rwanda to establish a national action plan on oral health, partly through activities in primary schools.
Target groups
Primary target groups: • 1200 families covered in the FSP program. These families belong to the most vulnerable and group in Rwandan society. The families are precariously exposed to economic hardship, death of one or both parents, and/or unstable family relations. • Primary school children (grades one to six) in six-seven intervention schools participating in the current project. The schools are public, and the pupils all come from poor backgrounds. The gender distribution corresponds to that of the general population. Within three years, a total of about 8,000 school children have benefited from the health activities at the schools. The included schools have all indicated a will and capacity to take over some of the financial and organizational functions of the daily toothbrushing and handwashing activities. Secondary target groups: • The project will integrate district- and national-level health and education decision makers as key stakeholders in its policy advocacy efforts. • FSP volunteers and healthcare workers such as the ‘home-based care practitioners’ and dental students are central to the project as they will receive training through the project and subsequently function as peer educators with a special emphasis on identification of oral health issues and local advocacy. • Teachers and principals at the intervention schools. Six-seven principals and 120 teachers will obtain communicable knowledge on how to educate on and promote oral health. Teachers and principals will also benefit from pedagogical and didactic materials developed and distributed through the project. • Parents. Corresponding to the number of children, up to 18,000 parents will gain knowledge on general and oral health. • Parents Teachers Committees (PTC). Engaging PTC will secure local ownership of the health activities at schools. Under this initiative the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) will be mobilized to contribute to the implementation of the project initiatives after the project ends to ensure sustainability. • University of Rwanda’s School of Dentistry. The school will collaborate with the project on organizing internship for dental students. • The Oral Health Promotion Committee (OHPC): The project will intensify the capacity building of this advocacy group to promote preventive oral health. It takes time and focus to create and establish a new, powerful and sustainable advocacy entity embedded in the civil society such as the OHPC. The committee has national coverage and functions as a strategic and communicative link between the local project experiences and the national level. The OHPC will comprise representatives from the following organizations/institutions: SOS RW, District officers from health and education departments, the School of Dentistry, the dental associations, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, district hospitals, The Rwandan NCD Alliance, TUG, and other relevant stakeholders. In addition to these target groups, the project will indirectly reach out to numerous Rwandans across the country through mass and social media, and through the collaboration with HBCP/community Health Workers.
Resume
TUG og SOS RW har i samarbejde udviklet dette projekt, der bygger videre på tidligere projekterfaringer med forebyggende sundhedsindsatser i Rwanda. Projektets hovedfokus er på kapacitetsopbygning, fortalervirksomhed, bæredygtighed og partnerskabsrelationer, funderet på en strategi med skolesundhedspleje og opsøgende virksomhed blandt sårbare familier (’community outreach’). Et hovedelement i projektet er yderligere kapacitetsopbygning af ’Oral Health Promotion Committee’, hvis formål er at lobby for implementering af en national handlingsplan for forebyggende tandpleje. Projektet vil arbejde tæt sammen med tandlægeskolen i Kigali, dels ved at lave forelæsninger om forebyggende tandpleje, og dels gennem etablering af et obligatorisk praktikforløb på projektet for de studerende.