Awash Women and Children Health Support Project focuses on maternal and child health in Awash district, Afar regional state. We will provide different capacity training to Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), Health Extension Workers (HEWs) & other community action groups. We will establish referral systems for TBAs, establish fistula referral system for victimized women, support women associations and outreach vaccinations for new born children, and enhance capacity of rural health posts.
Limited access to MCH service coupled with poor knowledge and awareness is the critical problem of Afar. Baby girls are cruelly mutilated during early infancy with traditional thinking of communities. Girls are forced to marry before the age of puberty. This has been done for centuries as a traditional belief that threatened mothers and children to death. Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) play a key role to support mothers deliver and care for there children in a safe manner at home.
The project will strengthen government owned healthcare at grass-roots level, enhancing capacity of TBAs and traditional institutions, improving awareness of the larger community through massive community mobilization. Activities in training, conferences, market-based announcements.
We aim to improve the health status of pastoralist mothers and children in Afar Regional State of Ethiopia in the short and long term.
