Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
BULILIMA and Mangwe Districts in Matabeleland South Province are set to benefit from the US$710 000 water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programme being implemented by the Government in partnership with development partners, Save the Children and Organisation for Rural Associations for Progress (Orap).
The integrated nutrition and water, sanitation, and hygiene project seeks, among other things, to improve access to safe water within communities and improve nutrition standards for children below five years in the province.
Speaking during the provincial inception meeting for the project last week, Save the Children health and nutrition manager, Mr Craig Nyathi, said the project started early last month and will end in the same month next year.
It will be implemented in Bulilima and Mangwe districts and will facilitate the rehabilitation of boreholes in eight wards, which will be installed with solar pumping systems.
The boreholes will support horticulture projects that will support nutritional gardens and enhance nutrition. Mr Nyathi said the project also seeks to promote hygiene through the provision of safe drinking water.
The project is being funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).
“The targeted outcomes of this project are namely improved nutrition security of vulnerable households with children below five years.
“The project will have the following two components of maternal infant and young child nutrition and management of acute malnutrition,” said Mr Nyathi.
“It is also targeting improved water access, sanitation, and hygiene conditions. The project will also focus on improved and increased access to water supply sources.
“It also seeks to bring comprehensive protection of project beneficiaries through community case management and system strengthening.”
He said the project will also prioritise child protection, psychosocial support services, prevention, and response to gender-based violence.
Some of the activities that will be carried out under the project include training of community health care workers and lead mothers on screening using mid-upper arm circumference, cooking demonstrations targeting households or caregivers of malnourished children, development and distribution of job aids to lead mothers, dialogues to improve male engagement and training of 200 community health workers on active case finding, referral, defaulter follow-up, and reporting.
“We will have monthly review meetings for the community health workers, home visits to households with cases of acute malnutrition, and mass screening and referral for acute malnutrition at community level,” said Mr Nyathi.
“There will also be monitoring and maintenance of household hygiene facilities, water point committee training on water safety and security, and quarterly mentorship of water point committees.”
The programme will also facilitate access to quality and child-friendly sexual and gender-based violence response services, and training of victim-friendly system stakeholders on the multi-sectorial management of protocol on the rights of survivors of sexual violence and abuse and coordination.
Save the Children country director, Mr Bhekimpilo Khanye, said the organisation is in the process of redesigning its delivery model.
“As Save the Children we are focused on the child and everything we do in our programming must have an impact on the child to ensure that children have a healthy state of mind,” he said.
“We also want to ensure that children have a firm foundation in life in terms of educational access. We also want to equip youths with economic knowledge to embark on various projects.
“In order to attain the desired outcomes, we want to incorporate various stakeholders at the national and local level. We are currently going through the development of a localisation strategy, which will then spell out how we will incorporate various players in our programming,” he said.
Matabeleland South director for economic affairs and development in the Office of the President of the Cabinet, Mr Richmond Ncube, said mainstreaming issues of child protection, improved nutrition and access to water, sanitisation and hygiene remains critical to the Government.
He urged the organisations to work closely with the Government and developmental structures from the provincial level down to the village level for smooth implementation of the programme.–-@DubeMatutu
Online Reporter