Keeping pastoralist children in school during drought

Thursday, May 30, 2013

In the past few months, relief has come in the form of much-needed rain to many drought-stricken districts in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia. Following an extreme dry season in 2012, and two previous years of minimal rainfall, the need for rain was critical in communities that are supported through The Road Less Travelled (TRLT) project.

Before the rains, 24 water distribution trucks were being used in an effort to avert thirst. Many Afar communities were weakened by severe malnutrition, animals were too weak to collect and carry water for households, and communities were unable to reach markets and sell stock as the animals were too emaciated. There was a strong fear that livestock would die en masse, leaving thousands of households destitute.

Between March and May, rainfall in some areas has replenished water storages, however, much of the water is unprotected and highly exposed to contamination. This leads to an increased risk of waterborne diseases among an already vulnerable community. Health extension workers have been working with project-trained health workers to establish community-level sanitation, which is a huge challenge in itself given the Afar nomadic lifestyle.

Rain has provided temporary relief for some communities in the drought-stricken Afar region of northern Ethiopia in recent months, while other areas remain dry.
Image: AVI / Fran Noonan

Other areas remain dry, having received minimal rainfall in recent months, and communities have been forced to move far from their homelands in search of grazing lands for their livestock. With the health of the herd at the heart of the pastoralists’ livelihood, TRLT partner the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) continually monitors these conditions and supports displaced communities through animal feeding and treatment, and water distribution.

A flow-on effect of the drought is that many pastoralist school children are forced to abandon their studies. (Continued)

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Delivering a better start in life

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Sunday 5th May marked the International Day of the Midwife, an opportunity to recognise and reflect on the crucial role midwives and birth attendants play in supporting mothers through pregnancy and making childbirth safer.

With Mothers’ Day coming up this Sunday 12th May, there is no better time to pay tribute to all the amazing, dedicated people who work tirelessly to improve maternal health for all women, all over the world.

Honor a midwife or a mother: send a free e-card today.

Most maternal deaths (99%) occur in developing countries, and more than half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, according to World Health Organization statistics.

Working in this region, we are all too familiar with the disparities that exist in terms of access to basic health services. The nomadic pastoralist communities who live in sparsely-populated areas of Ethiopia and Kenya are among those often excluded – they are marginalised as a result of their remote location and way of life.

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Reflections on the progress of a partnership

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Last month saw the release of the inaugural Annual Report for AusAID’s Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES). The Road Less Travelled is being delivered by Anglican Overseas Aid (AOA) as part of this program.

The report is available on AusAID’s website and it highlights the progress made by all the partners in the first year of the program. Our Africa Program Advisor, Phillip Walker, is Chair of the AACES Program Steering Committee. He explains the partnership on the Engage blog, saying:

“AACES is unlike typical grant/donor relationships; it is a partnership agreement between AusAID, 10 Australian NGOs and their African partners. All parties value and support one another to get the best development outcomes in the African countries where we work.

“[It] recognises Australian NGOs’ positive record of working in Africa for some fifty years. Australian NGOs provide unique skills, have a strong base within the communities they work with and are there for the long haul.”

Naatena Lenayora, a mother from the pastoralist community of Samburu, Kenya, where The Road Less Travelled is supporting community-led initiatives to improve the health of women and children. Image: Jay Maheswaran

(Continued)

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Celebrate Mums & Midwives with us

Friday, April 12, 2013

Join us in celebrating mothers and midwives at The Road Less Travelled photographic exhibition, which showcases a stunning collection of images taken throughout sub-Saharan Africa as part of Anglican Overseas Aid’s project.

In the lead-up to International Day of the Midwife (5 May) and Mothers’ Day (12 May) in Australia, we’re inviting you on a journey into the lives of the women and children of nomadic pastoralist communities in Kenya and Ethiopia.

A photograph of a traditional birth attendant in Kenya, which features in The Road Less Travelled photographic exhibition.
Image: Matthew Willman / Anglican Overseas Aid

At The Road Less Travelled project, we believe all mothers matter. We envisage a world where all mothers have access to safe, respectful health care. And in turn, so do their children. In the marginalised communities we work with, this is not always the case. Cost, distance and attitudes often prevent these women and children from accessing the quality care they deserve.

The exhibition features images by Matthew Willman, Christof Krackhardt and Maria Ölund, captured during visits to partner organisations the Mothers’ Union in Kenya, and the Afar Pastoralist Development Association in Ethiopia.

Through the photographs, viewers will be exposed to the project and the people of the Afar, Maasai and Samburu pastoralist communities. You will have the opportunity to learn about the challenges they face on a daily basis, and gain insight into the holistic, strength-based approach this project is taking to improve maternal and child health.

Bring your mum, a friend, a partner, or just go by yourself and be taken on a colourful journey into the lives of the pastoralist women of Africa.

EXHIBITION DATES TO REMEMBER

MELBOURNE: 12 April – 17 May 2013

Women’s Health Information Centre

The Royal Women’s Hospital

Parkville, Victoria

SYDNEY: 12 May – 6 June 2013

WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery & Health Development

Faculty of Health, Level 6, University of Technology Sydney

Ultimo, New South Wales

SEND AN ECARD TO MUM

If you can’t make it to the exhibition in person, you can still be a part of it! Check out our online gallery and voice your support for safe motherhood by sending one of our beautiful eCards to your mum, or someone who matters to you.

Each eCard sent is helping to raise awareness of The Road Less Travelled, and the work being done to improve the health of women and children in marginalised communities.

Show your support: send a free eCard here.

Get regular updates from The Road Less Travelled: subscribe to our blog and follow us on Twitter.

The Road Less Travelled is being delivered by Anglican Overseas Aid, in partnership with the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (Ethiopia), the Mothers’ Union (Kenya), the Nossal Institute for Global Health and Australian Volunteers International. This initiative is supported by AusAID.

Filed in Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, maternal health | | Comments (1)

Baseline Report offers important insight into maternal and child health among nomadic pastoralist communities

Monday, March 18, 2013

Between January and May in 2012, The Road Less Travelled (TRLT) project undertook a maternal and child health (MCH) baseline survey among Maasai and Samburu nomadic pastoralist communities in Laikipia and Samburu, Kenya.

The purpose of this baseline assessment was to understand the existing context and situation prior to the implementation of TRLT project initiatives in Kenya, and to identify the current status of key thematic areas that impact on MCH outcomes among nomadic pastoralists.

TRLT AACES Baseline Report

Maternal and child health baseline survey among Maasai and Samburu nomadic pastoralist communities in Laikipia and Samburu, Kenya.

A broad holistic strengths-based approach was adopted during the design of the project to include a focus on the key determinants of health. The thematic areas captured in the baseline study reflect this focus, and include:

  • Knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to core MCH indicators;
  • Family planning
  • Disease and immunisation;
  • Access to health services;
  • Access to literacy and education;
  • Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); and
  • Livelihoods.

A quantitative questionnaire was administered to 800 pastoralist households across Laikipia and Samburu. The questionnaire was administered to a man and a woman from each of the participating households. Qualitative data was also captured via a series of focus group discussions with men, women and traditional birth attendants.

The findings allow for a deeper understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding MCH and other issues impacting on health in these communities. This data will be used to inform The Road Less Travelled’s project strategy and set baseline evaluation indicators by which impact and change in the communities will be measured over time.

Download the full report

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Easing the water burden

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

This post was written by Greg Armstrong, Research Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, Anglican Overseas Aid’s partner in The Road Less Travelled project.

We met Natana Nalikite and Kumontaare Mayani by an open spring in Naibor, a Maasai group ranch in Laikipia County, Kenya. A rock water catchment is being built nearby to ease the water burden on the local community. It is a burden that is felt most heavily by women, whose task it is to walk long distances on a daily basis to collect their household’s water. Our recent baseline survey in Naibor found that 77 percent of women walk two or more hours per day to fetch their household’s water supplies.

The women of Naibor walk long distances every day to reach the open spring, where they place their containers in a queue and wait for their turn to collect their household’s water.
Image: Greg Armstrong

Natana is in her 40s, a mother of five and the only wife to her husband. Her youngest child, a six month old girl named Sawaoi, is cradled in a sling that sits around her shoulders. Her surname, Nalikite, means to walk slowly, yet Natana assures us that she has greater strength in her legs than her name suggests.

(Continued)

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Video: Eliminating barriers to skilled birth attendance

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Following on from our previous post, here is the second clip featuring our team in action at the Global Maternal Health Conference (GMHC) last month. Valerie Browning of the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA), our Ethiopian partner, led a panel discussion around a topic very close to her heart, “Eliminating barriers to skilled birth attendance.”

This two-part video from the Maternal Health Task Force gives insight into some of the incredible work being done and different strategies being adopted in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, India and Bangladesh, in an effort to improve skilled birth attendance. (You can view Valerie’s presentation on APDA’s work from the beginning of the second video).

Eliminating barriers 1 from Maternal Health Task Force on Vimeo.

(Continued)

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Watch us in action at GMHC

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Check out this two-part video from the Maternal Health Task Force of a panel session at the Global Maternal Health Conference in Tanzania last month. The topic of discussion was “Improving maternal health in rural populations” and among the presenters was James Senjura, Project Officer for Mothers’ Union, our Kenyan project partner.

James shared some key findings from The Road Less Travelled’s maternal and child health baseline survey among nomadic pastoralist communities in Laikipia and Samburu, Kenya (his presentation commences at 16:15 in part one).

Improving maternal health part 1 from Maternal Health Task Force on Vimeo.

(Continued)

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Bridging the gap in maternal health care for Kenya’s Maasai

Thursday, February 7, 2013

This post was written by Sarah Manyeki, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, and Millicent Wanjiru, HIV Project Officer, for Mothers’ Union – Anglican Overseas Aid’s Kenyan partner in The Road Less Travelled project.

Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) are a sensitive topic in Kenya. They are proscribed because they were believed to have been contributing to the nation’s high maternal and child mortality rates.

Despite the TBAs being proscribed, they still play a very major role in assisting mothers to deliver in remote nomadic pastoralist communities. According to a Baseline Survey carried out by Mothers’ Union between January and May 2012, 92 percent of women in Laikipia and Samburu Counties give birth at home without the assistance of a skilled health worker.

TBA

In safer hands: could empowering traditional birth attendants be the key to bridging the health care gap for Kenya’s nomadic pastoralist communities?
Image: AVI / Hannah Ford

(Continued)

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Improved safety for Afar pastoralist mothers

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

In the Afar region of Ethiopia, 93 percent of mothers deliver their babies at home with the assistance of traditional birthing attendants (TBAs). Safe motherhood is fundamental to overall community development, and the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) is addressing the needs of the community through a holistic approach.

This includes a focus on strategies to increase access to water, since females traditionally collect water; improve the health of livestock, so that milk is readily available; improve household economies through income generation activities; and enhance access to education and literacy.

APDA’s programs aim to lessen the workload of females in daily household chores, stop harmful traditional practices that have a negative effect on women’s health and wellbeing, and to facilitate Afar women to be implementers of development change within their society.

The struggle for safe motherhood ideally takes place within the pastoralist home, led by the community and managed by the local government, including the traditional leadership.

Literate pastoralist women trained in safe motherhood work alongside APDA-trained traditional birth attendants in the remote Afar region of Ethiopia.
Image: APDA / Christof Krackhardt

Having selected the most active and popular TBAs in the community, APDA has trained 1,036 TBAs on basic hygiene, sanitation, clean delivery, antenatal care, and recognition of risk pregnancies. Trained TBAs are equipped with clean birthing kits for each delivery. This has resulted in the establishment of clean birthing processes and a referral mechanism to health institutions for ‘risk’ pregnancies.

(Continued)

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