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Hand Washing.

StaRS Project: AHEAD Organises Curriculum Training for Teachers

On the 22nd and 23rd of October 2019, teachers from Oranmiyan College, Anglican Central and St Stephen’s Middle School came together for the training on the chosen curricula of Water and Sanitation Hygiene, Bullying and Violence and Gender. This training was a crucial step in the continuation of the implementation phase of the Starting Right at Schools (StaRS) project. The aim of the training was to teach the teachers with the curricula that they would use in training the students on the selected issues. It was also an opportunity for them to get familiar with the material, understand how to contextualize it to their schools and to work out whatever ambiguity they may face in the course of implementation.

WATER AND SANITATION HYGIENE (WASH)

The presentation of the Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) curriculum was delivered by Ms. Sola Olanrewaju, the Head, Program Development and Implementation at the Academy for Health Development. The modules of the WASH curriculum include washing hands, personal hygiene, hygiene and sanitation, puberty and menstrual hygiene management and how basic toilets and good hygiene practices are essential for the survival and development of children.

The WASH manual will serve as a practical guide to be used by teachers and school health assistants who are involved in the promotion of water, sanitation and hygiene practices (WASH). It is designed to provide the necessary background to WASH topics for teachers and school health assistants. The objectives of the manual include

  • To raise knowledge and awareness of good WASH practices.
  • To inculcate good water, sanitation and hygiene practices in our children.
  • For girls and boys to understand puberty and associated body changes.

The presentation was filled with stories and activities like washing hands to a song, role playing and storytelling.

BULLYING AND VIOLENCE

Ms. Seun Davies, the Senior Program Associate, Program and Capacity Development at AHEAD presented the curriculum on Bullying and Violence. The curriculum covered the different forms of violence and bullying, how to recognize and address them, how to self-assess oneself to determine if one bullies, how to advocate against bullying and the roles of the teachers in bullying situations.

The curriculum also included an anti-bullying pledge to be taken by the students and the institution of anti-bullying clubs and ambassadors who would work with the teachers to identify and mitigate acts of bullying and violence.

The presentation was made interesting with the use of tests, checklists and role-playing.

GENDER

The Program Associate, Program Development and Implementation Mrs. Olamide Akanbi presented the Gender Curriculum. The curriculum includes modules like understanding gender and gender division of labour, Knowing your body and Gender-based violence

The curriculum highlighted the difference between gender and sex, how their perceptions influence attitudes, behaviours and expectations and addressed terms like gender equality and gender equity. The objectives of the curriculum were

  • To assist the school management in addressing gender issues at the school level
  • To impart gender responsiveness and sensitivity training to teachers at high schools in the intervention site.
  • To equip the students with the concepts, skills and attitude needed to facilitate equal participation of girls and boys in schools

The curriculum was rich in storytelling activities.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the training, the Middle Schools’ Director who was present to give support to her colleagues, thanked the Academy for Health Development and her sponsors for the empowerment of the teachers and she encouraged the teachers to be fine conduits of the information they had received. She emphasized the need for them to not only cater to the academic needs of their students, but to ensure the students also enjoyed emotional and psychological support from them.

PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EVENT

 

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AHEAD begins the Implementation Stage of the StaRS Project

Following the Community Dialogue program, the Academy for Health Development in conjunction with the Osun State Education Board and other stakeholders have begun the implementation stage of the Starting Right at School (StaRS) project.

The first step was to carry out a Water and Sanitation NEEDS assessment of the three schools where intervention is to be carried out. This NEEDS assessment was done to examine the state of the water and sanitation hygiene facilities in the schools and to propose the most cost-effective sustainable interventions as allowed by the grant of $1000 for each school. The three schools assessed were Anglican Government Central Middle School, St Stephen’s Middle School and Oranmiyan Middle School, Osun state, Nigeria.

Some of the WASH challenges found in the schools included: a lack of proper waste management, faulty plumbing systems, improperly combined male and female toilet facilities, and faulty toilet facilities.

The interventions to be put in place to tackle these WASH challenges would be: provision of an incinerator to facilitate proper waste disposal system; repair/replacement of leaking pipes and toilet facilities as the case may be; training of school staff on the importance separating staff toilets from students’ and distinguishing male and female toilet facilities as a way of promoting healthy social and reproductive health and hygiene.

Photo Highlights from the Visits

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Starting Right at School (StaRS): To This Point

The Starting Right at School (StaRS) Project is a study aimed at understanding the gender socialization norm among very young adolescents. It is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and implemented in three different countries. In Nigeria, it is currently being carried out by the Academy for Health Development (AHEAD) in Osun state, Nigeria.

The project which is comprised of 3 stages; baseline, intervention and endline phases has just rounded up the baseline phase.

BASELINE

STEP 1: FIELD WORK

In January following a week-long training of research assistants, field work was carried out in 8 selected schools (5 served as control schools and 3 served as intervention schools). Using a questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization and adapted by AHEAD, the researchers sought to understand the young adolescents’ point of view on sexual and reproductive health, gender norms, bullying and violence and other matters regarding gender socialization. A total of 1032 adolescents were interviewed.

Following this, a few of the young adolescents were selected and taught the art of photovoice and how it can be used as a tool for advocacy.

The students then went into their schools and communities and identified and photographed issues surrounding sexual and reproductive health, gender socialization and gender norms.

STEP 2: ANALYSIS

The study analysis showed that of the 1032 students interviewed in the 8 schools studied, 3.49% of students had had sexual intercourse while about 9.3% claimed to have friends or know someone who had had sexual intercourse.

The boys who reported experiencing bullying were about 82.3% of those interviewed and 81.3% of girls interviewed reported the same. This is similar to global statistics.

STEP 3: COMMUNITY DIALOGUE

In June, after analysis of the results had been done, AHEAD invited the students, parents, teachers and principals, school board, education commission and other stake holders to a community dialogue to present the findings from the study, the challenges and risks from the captured gendered norms and their proposed solutions to effectively tackling these issues.The Community dialogue was opened by the Permanent Secretary of State Universal Basic Education Board, represented by the Osun State Middle Schools Director, Mrs A. K. Oladimeji who thanked AHEAD for the initiative. She reminded teachers that a lot of students have more belief in them than in their parents and that even though gender roles are mostly determined by culture, parents and religions, the negative ones need to be rectified.

AHEAD gave a presentation on the objectives of the study and the different stages of the project. It was explained that the community dialogue signified the end of the first stage, the base-line stage and that it would be followed by the implementation and the end-line stages.

A presentation by the students followed immediately, explaining the photos they had taken using photovoice to depict issues surrounding gender socialization and gender norms that they identified in their schools and communities; the pictures were grouped in five thematic areas:

  • Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) Matters, which included pictures of unsanitary toilets and environments,
  • Violence and Bullying which showed images of male and female students bullying their colleagues and students fighting.
  • Safe Environment, revealed pictures of unsafe play areas and potentially dangerous areas in the schools.
  • Gender Equality which depicted images of unfair and unequal treatment of female students such as, boys at play while girls were doing chores, and
  • Gender Sexuality showing images including those of segregation of male and female students in the class and at play.

Days 2 and 3 were aimed at developing interventions; Dr Obioma Uchendu of the Inspire Network gave an insightful presentation on violence in children and adolescents and shared the seven inspire strategies for addressing this problem.

A member of the AHEAD team gave a presentation on identifying and promoting the opportunities that exist for the fostering of gender equity in schools using the Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) as a reference.

Stakeholders were grouped according to the schools they represented and they discussed and outlined the gender socialization challenges faced by their schools in order of priority; they also shared their visions for the schools and designed a road map tailored after evidence-based strategies for gender-socialization for the realization for the visions shared.

We are moving to the second phase of the StaRS Project; the implementation phase.This will consist of the collaboration of the organization and the school stakeholders to judiciously and effectively channel the funds into selected appropriate and sustainable interventions. Implementation will run for about 6 months after which the endline phase of the project will commence and this will be a post-implementation analysis of the project, its impact and recommendations on sustainability and future projects.

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