By Tokpa Tarnue– tarnue82@gmail.com
VOINJAMA, Liberia- Breakthrough ACTION Liberia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) has ended a two-day “Community Collaboration Training” in Voinjama, Lofa County.
Breakthrough ACTION Liberia is a National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that is implementing a two-year project in the health sector titled “Flagship Social Behavior Change” led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) with sponsorship from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in twelve of Liberia’s fifteen Counties.
Speaking at the start of the two days training in Voinjama city, Breakthrough AFRICA Liberia Communication lead Vera Weeh disclosed that the two-day Community Collaboration Training is the first in a series of community engagements to be conducted during the USAID sponsored project implementation in the county.
She said the goal of the project is to deliver effective quality social and behavior change (SBC) activities in Liberia that will result in improved demand, access, and use of health services for malaria; maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH); family planning/ reproductive health (FP/RH); adolescent health; and water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and engage communities in behaviors to prevent zoonotic and non-zoonotic infections in line with the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).
“The project will focus on improving the community health systems and strengthening the community health structures across the twelve counties where the project is implemented,” Vera Weeh indicated.
According to her, the collaborators as part of the project will conduct three separate meeting to include an orientation meeting which intended to establish interest in intervention, solicit feedback; village meetings to also establish interest in intervention, solicit and document feedback; and thirdly, host kick off meetings to discuss/synthesize results; formalize buy-in as part of the community entry process of the project.
During the kick off meeting collaboration team and the community action group members are expected to reflect on the orientation and village meeting and the feedback received from the broader community.
She said by the conclusion of the meeting, community action group members must state whether or not the communities they represent agree to a partnership with Breakthrough ACTION.
“Communities that will agree to will be invited to sign a memorandum of understanding,” Madam Weeh further disclosed.
The project which is starting in two of the districts is expected to extend to other parts of Lofa County.