Operation Mercy Afghanistan's Birth Life-Saving Skills (BLiSS) is a health education program focusing on pregnancy, birth and newborn care. It includes seventeen lessons designed to reach an illiterate audience with role plays, stories, picture cards, and models that help the participants to learn the material and make decisions based on that knowledge. It costs 80 or $113 for one participant to receive this training. The project will enable 50 women and men to benefit from taking the course.
Afghanistan has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, with 4.9 children per mother (WHO 2013). It is also ranked number 18 on the list of countries with the highest under 5 mortality rate; 99 deaths per 1000 births (UNICEF, 2014). 65% of women in Afghanistan give birth in their homes and 70% of women do not receive any antenatal care or a visit from a trained health worker.
Operation Mercy Afghanistan together with Community Development Consultants (CDC) developed the Birth Life Saving Skills (BLiSS) program in 2005 to address this need. BLiSS is a health education program about pregnancy, birth and newborn care. BLiSS trainers facilitate learner-centred, participatory lessons that guide illiterate women in the community through the process of recognizing maternal-child health issues, identifying health related problems and coming to a consensual decision.
Participants are encouraged to share knowledge gained with other members of their communities. The 17 lessons of the BLiSS course encourage women to speak about their birthing traditions and ideas and to look carefully at their underpinning cultural beliefs. It focuses on the importance of accessing medical help in a timely manner and through participatory learning and role play, addresses many cultural beliefs, some harmful and others beneficial. BLiSS aims to reach 2430 participants in 2016
