Health Education for Primary Schools Project (HEPS I & II)
(1995 - 2003)
Funded by USAID, the Health Education for Primary Schools (HEPS) project aimed to encourage local organizations to work with one another in the pursuit of sustainable development. HEPS was a multi-faceted project in which skills and knowledge were transferred primary school students through local NGOs and community support groups. After a successful midterm evaluation in 1998, MCDI submitted a proposal to extend the project (originally scheduled to end in 1999), which was subsequently granted through 2003 (HEPS II).
The goal of HEPS was to heighten the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary school children in the areas of health and hygiene. This project contributed to USAID/Benin's goal of strengthening the country's HR base and complemented its strategic objective of increasing the access of Beninese children to quality primary education.
The HEPS project also promoted preventive health care by disseminating knowledge about disease prevention and increasing the number of latrines at the school to improve sanitation and the learning environment of primary-school children. It also help to improve the capacity of local NGOs, parent-teacher associations, and community groups to understand and deliver important health messages to school children and the larger community.
The primary objectives of the project were:
- To increase the knowledge of primary-school children in the areas of proper nutrition and prevention and treatment of communicable diseases. The project sought to strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) and school support groups by providing training on topics relating to health and hygiene.
- To provide approximately US$ 4 million in sub-grants and technical assistance to 15 NGOs in number of capacity areas including administration, management and use of technical knowledge and skills. Grants were given to implement the HEPS project in the areas of malaria, diarrheal disease, HIV/AIDS, hygiene and sanitation. Grantees, in turn, strengthened the capacities of over 1,000 local CBOs.
- To improve sanitation in primary schools by providing an adequate number of latrines and water points in compliance with the Fundamental Quality Levels (FQL) set by the Government
- To strengthen the trend of NGO participation in service delivery - an area previously the sole responsibility of the public sector - and health-education training s. With improved health behaviors, children are most likely to influence other household members, including parents.
MCDI's work in Benin involved developing behavior-change materials for health education, providing sanitary infrastructure to more than than 300,000 students, supporting the MoH's health program in the schools, and conducting operations research that focused on schools as distribution channels for insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). The HEPS approaches to school hygiene and developing health-education materials were adopted by the Ministry of Health and the field personnel of other international NGOs.
