A new user-friendly school health training manuals and materials are being put to good use by community leaders as part of innovative programme which is looking to improve the health and education of children in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp.
The health situation facing children in the camp is serious - analysis conducted by the PCD showed that school-aged children in the camp faced high levels of malnutrion, anemia and parasitic worm infection:
- 79% suffered from under nutrition
- 1 in 5 infected with blinding trachoma
- 22% of children were anaemic, showing a strong correlation to malaria infection
These health issues were compounded by inadequate sanitation and clean water facilities in schools and a lack of nutritional knowledge amongst parents and guardians.
Download the training manuals
To understand how best to tackle these issues and provide communities like Kakuma with the skills and the services to send healthy children to school, PCD in partnership with the
World Food Programme,
UNHCR, IRC,
KEMRI and the Kenyan Government is conducting a 2 year study into the impact of comprehensive school health programme on children in the camp.
The programme is evaluating the impact of integrating
deworming treatments, improved
water and sanitation facilities and practices and the provision of
nutritionally balanced school meals on the health and education of children. These interventions will go hand-in-hand with community focused health posters and training sessions which will seek to embedded healthy practices outside the school gates.
The learnings from this programme will then be used inform the development of school health programmes in Kakuma Refugee Camp and communities like it.
Based on these manuals PCD are also working with the
Norwegian Refugee Council to provide Water Health and Sanitation training manuals for Hygiene Promotion Staff.
