Full layout can be downloaded in four parts (20 pages in total) … Please be patient, it takes a bit of time!

Meanwhile please read the excerps…

The year [...]]]>

Full layout can be downloaded in four parts (20 pages in total) … Please be patient, it takes a bit of time!

Meanwhile please read the excerps…

2011 AHEAD Annual Report_part_1

2011 AHEAD Annual Report_part_2

2011 AHEAD Annual Report_part_3

2011 AHEAD Annual Report_part_4

EXCERPS:

ZIMBABWE AHEAD, 2011
Anthony Waterkeyn, Chairman

The year ended very sadly with the passing away of Josephine Mutandiro on 27th December, 2011. She was a founding staff member who on retirement in 2009 became a Board Member and Trustee. She will be sorely missed but very fondly remembered by all those of us who have been privileged to work with her and who have greatly appreciated her deep humanity, wisdom and wonderfully innovative understanding of grass-root community development.

ZimAHEAD has continued to play an ever increasing role in the WASH sector, not only in Zimbabwe, but also in the region at large. During the well attended SADC WASH Conference that took place in Maputo in May this year, the final recommendation sent forward to the AfricaSan Conference in Rwanda (July 2011) highlighted the effectiveness and impact that CHCs achieve in cost-effective hygiene behaviour change. This has stimulated increasing interest from various NGOs in the region to find out more about CHCs.

To-date, 22 NGOs in Zimbabwe have been trained and mentored by Zim AHEAD as part of the Protracted Relief Programme 11, funded by DFID.

Click here for Map of PRP Districts 2011

Requests from various NGOs in the region have been received  to provide Look andlearn tours to Zimbabwe. This once again highlights the urgent need for establishing a regional Research & Training Centre to enable international visitors to study CHCs in action and provide them with the quality of training that will enable them to replicate and scale up CHCs back in their own countries. It will also provide an opportunity for students to research the cost effectiveness of CHCs and such research, if it generates objective evidence of success, should in turn increase the prospects for ZimAHEAD to extend our influence. All this should bode well for future funding and overall growth prospects for ZimAHEAD.

In 2012 we expect to attract direct support from leading agencies rather than simply being sub-contracted through international NGOs as has been the case over recent years. This should allow us to grow and expand as an organisation in the near future in stark contrast to the many challenges we faced through the latter-half of 2011 as a result of delayed start of projects and funding constraints. With the EUWF/ACF project finally starting and good prospects of direct USAID funding, the outlook for 2012 is definitely a bright one!

ANNUAL REPORT BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dr. Juliet Waterkeyn  

2011 started out with great promise. Zimbabwe AHEAD had consolidated its reputation with government as an innovative leader in the sector, contributing to the national effort in WASH and SAG networks, as well as spear-heading the development of new Health Promoting Schools Curriculum. We were also considered a strategic local partner by many international NGOs wanting to use the CHC methodology as it spread throughout the country thanks largely to our role in Protracted Relief Programme (PRP II), where we had trained 22 NGOs in our methodology. Through our sister Association, Africa AHEAD, we were invited to provide community mobilization in massive engineering contracts by prestigious UK firms, who were bidding for rehabilitation of sanitation in 5 towns in Zimbabwe. By the end of 2010, eight international partners had submitted joint proposals with us for EC Funding and in early 2011 we were delighted to hear the ACF bid was successful. Our team was gearing up to begin this ambitious programme starting 450 CHCs in Gutu and Mberengwa districts. Although we expected to start in May, delays ensued while ACF worked through their own bureaucratic demands from the EU, and ZimAHEAD was left hanging. As our project with OXFAM wound up in mid year, and the ACF programme still showed no signs of start up in July, many field staff were laid off , while others were on half salaries for the rest of the year.

The second half of 2011 taxed our small NGO to near breaking point. As the political situation in Zimbabwe remained locked in stale-mate, we, like many other NGOs this year, found direct funding elusive. To minimize core costs, Regis Matimati, our Director of Programmes has stood in for me as Acting Director most of the year and continued valiantly to keep up morale despite the many challenges, whilst Innocent Marivo, our Admin and Finance Manager patiently kept us in business, with sale of training materials and consultancy training workshops for Medair and PRP II. I would like to recognize the loyalty of our staff, who have all come back to the Zim AHEAD family ready to work again now the ACF project is finally going ahead. We are happy to announce that in January 2012 we are taking on 9 new staff for the ACF Programme, and another 8 new staff for the emergency USAID-OFDA that we expect to start up soon. This will enable Zim AHEAD to go back to our old project areas of Makoni District, Chiredzi and Masvingo, training 240 CHCs with 216,000 beneficiaries in one year. 2012 should be a record breaking year for us as we continue to scale up CHCs throughout Zimbabwe. May this happen as planned!

COLLABORATION AND ADVOCACY
Regis Matimati, Director of Programmes

ZimAHEAD maintained its position in working on the National WASH Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) where we presided and deliberated over national WASH issues and gave recommendations and advice to the National WASH steering committee.

Monthly we attended the national WASH cluster in Harare and a couple of times we attended the Masvingo Provincial WASH cluster as we had projects going in the province. The several meetings we had in the Education cluster may involve us a school health project in collaboration with VVOB and UNICEF.

We worked and contributed on the MoHCW Community Based Environmental Health Promotion Programme (CBEHPP) and we were invited to make presentations and be discussants on CHCs at a 2 day National Environmental Health Officers’ forum in Nyanga which we attended together with the ZA Board Chairman.

We joined the NCU led National Sanitation and Hygiene taskforce that came up with the National Sanitation Strategy. We met and deliberated for over 8 months to come up with the document. Due to representations we made at such meetings, CHCs feature in the Strategic document as the way to go for Zimbabwe.

We have been assigned by National WASH cluster to lead the engagement of partners on Urban PHP and to that effect we have presented at the Urban Rehab Technical Working group and the National WASH cluster. A lot of interest has been generated and other organizations are wanting to learn from us about urban PHP picking from our Mutare, Chiredzi and Masvingo urban experiences.

We have been invited to several National forums on the WASH and Education front such as the Regional WASH in School workshop which was attended by representatives from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe MoEASC and the National NAC planning and review workshops and that signifies how we are perceived by our significant partners in the sector namely NCU and Unicef who invited us.

WORKER OF THE YEAR: 2011:

Admin and Finance Manager: Innocent Marivo

We would like to recognize the good work of Innocent Marivo, our Administration and Finance Manager, who has kept his cool through thick and thin and managed to show all our donors that no matter how small or large the budget, our systems are in place and our books are squeaky clean.

Innocent  took over the accounts in 2007, at the time of hyper-inflation, when the dollar had been in free fall and  accountants throughout Zimbabwe were despairing of being able to balancing their books, with the number of zero’s they had to juggle with, and which changed as they were doing the sums.  Methodically he went through the previous years, redoing them to meet the exacting standards of Mercy Corps, and passed all compliance tests, whilst setting up systems that have impressed other partners like Oxfam and ACF.  In 2010, we had our books audited and they measured up to the international standards which enable us to apply for direct funding from the likes of USAID. Most impressive of all is how he has managed to stretch the limited income this year, prioritizing expenditure and making careful decisions that have enabled us to stay in business through the sale of training materials and  consultancy work. At the same time he was able to complete his Masters degree in Accounts! Thank you Innocent and congratulations!

MASVINGO BOREHOLE REHABILITATION

Andrew Muringaniza, Programme Manager

Thanks to OXFAM, which based on our past performance gave ZimAHEAD the chance to demonstrate its ability to implement hardware projects in addition to our usual software role.

In total 82 Water User Committee members  and 15 Village Pump Mechanics were trained  and in total, 15 boreholes were rehabilitated.

An extra 7 boreholes above the target of 8 boreholes were rehabilitated. This was achieved by making it mandatory for each VPM to successfully rehabilitate a borehole in order to qualify for a certificate!

There were 121 CHC  with  5,400 CHC members. The size of CHC was smaller than our customary target of 100 per club due to partner’s proposal  which limited CHCs to an average of 45 members, which was well below demand.

The project also pioneered the involvement of local business community in providing soap to identified beneficiaries using a voucher system.  The shops were paid upon completion of distributing 10,000 bars of soap.   Health knowledge and good hygiene practice  increased from a baseline of 40% to 80%,  exceeding the project target of 75%.

TOUR OF PROGRAMMES:

Kate Brogan (2011 Intern)

On completion of my Masters Degree in Water and Sanitation, from Cranfield University, ZimAHEAD (the Zimbabwean arm of Africa AHEAD) kindly agreed to accept me as an intern to enable me to see first-hand how this approach is achieving sustainable development  through the creation of a Health Community Club, the vehicle for change.  Travelling with Acting Director, Mr Regis Matimati, to do a follow-up visit on some of the projects, I was able to see how the Community Health Clubs are faring.

Our first stop was the town of Masvingo where a project had been carried out from July to November 2010 in an area called Garikai.  This is a high density area that was formed after ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ to rehouse some of the displaced people that were affected.   Houses consist of two rooms and have no water or sanitation facilities.  As many as two families can reside in one dwelling, as the number of houses built is not nearly enough for all those made homeless.

While driving through Garikai I am struck by how clean it is.  Gardens are found surrounding every home, with tippy taps suspended on structures outside each.  No litter is to be seen anywhere and rubbish pits have been dug to burn any rubbish that does need disposing of.  As our car drives along the narrow dirt road through Garikai we are greeted with broad smiles and ladies coming up to the vehicle to greet Mr Matimati.  They vigorously shake his hand and proudly tell him how clean their house it.  They say that their life has now been transformed as they now know how to keep their house and area clean and free from illness.

The close proximity of houses and fact that these people are only renting their homes means that the building of latrines is not a simple matter for them; however they are proud to advise that now they practice ‘Cat Sanitation’ ensuring a clean environment is maintained.  To see such respect and appreciation for the education provided here was very moving, and showed that behavioural changes can be achieved in a short amount of time and in difficult circumstances if the approach taken is participatory.

The following day we travelled to the rural areas of Masvingo to visit a project that is still running where we heard testimonies from members about how their life had changed as a result of the club.  The support within the group for all its members is obvious, and through this support the people appear to feel encouraged to continue their home improvements.

One lady stood up and told us how she would carry out all her daily duties and never once wash her hands.  Then she would prepare the meals and serve them to her family with dirty hands.  Now she knows this is not good, and washes her hands regularly and cleans her house daily.  Another lady then stood to verify that the testimony was true. She said she had known this lady for years and that she used to be very dirty, to which they all laughed in agreement.  They applauded the changes she has made her family is proud of their home -positive peer pressure!

When leaving we were begged by some members to visit their homes. Kitchens have been beautified  with shelving moulded into the clay walls and a clay fuel efficient stove are the fashion contributing to the greening of the area, as less firewood is used and valuable time is saved.

Our next visit was to a School Health Club in ward 27 of Masvingo Rural.  The headmistress guided us around the school grounds were a tippy tap was to be found outside each classroom as well as outside the latrines.  She advised that now the books are lasting longer as the children are keeping them clean and that it is the responsibility of the teacher and pupils within each class to ensure soap and water are kept at the tippy tap station at all times.  The grounds of the school were immaculate and even the teachers homes which are found on the school grounds must now be maintained to a high standard of cleanliness.

The children all gathered under trees in the school grounds and proceeded to sing songs and recite poems they had written in thanks for Zim AHEAD’s project.

The school mistress said that the borehole that had been rehabilitated on the school grounds will never break again, as she now has the skills to repair it herself.  She feels she is now as good as any village pump mechanic!

Key Staff 2011

The training of Training in Rwanda for the scaling up of the CHC Approach was completed in November 2010, and since then the process has been rolling out across the country in an unprecedented fashion. Supported personally by a presidential directive from President Paul Kagame, the Environmental Health Department is jumping around [...]]]>

October, 2011

The training of Training in Rwanda for the scaling up of the CHC Approach was completed in November 2010, and since then the process has been rolling out across the country in an unprecedented fashion. Supported personally by a presidential directive from President Paul Kagame, the Environmental Health Department is jumping around establishing CHCs in all districts.

By July 2011, detailed data was kindly made available to Africa AHEAD from EHD, which showed that an astonishing 79% of the 15,000 villages in Rwanda have already registered a CHC and that the monitoring structure is being put in place throughout the country. All Districts (100%) have the umbrella hygiene committee in place, and the structure reaches down the country at each level: 86% of the Sectors have committees, 74% of the cells, and 79% of villages have already elected their hygiene committee at village level. In addition 65% of schools also have hygiene committees, and 82% of hospitals are also ready to start CHCs.

This is a phenomenal amount of activity and is essential to lay the foundation for the CHC training to be rolled out throughout the country in the next year. Whilst many believe that scaling up at this rate will prove impossible the initial response by villagers and all levels of government bodes well for the future.

Africa AHEAD is currently sourcing funding to enable detailed monitoring of this process to be done so as to capture the changes in behaviour that is expected to be achieved. Not only is Rwanda going to be one of the few sub Saharan countries to meet the MDGs, but will also meet it’s own standards that all these latrines will be hygienic and properly used.

Africa AHEAD has recently joined the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA),  an informal network of partner organisations who share a common vision on sustainable sanitation. SuSanA came into existence in early 2007 and works as a coordination platform, working platform, sounding board, contributor to the policy dialogue on sustainable sanitation and as a [...]]]> Sustainable Sanitation Alliance

Africa AHEAD has recently joined the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA),  an informal network of partner organisations who share a common vision on sustainable sanitation. SuSanA came into existence in early 2007 and works as a coordination platform, working platform, sounding board, contributor to the policy dialogue on sustainable sanitation and as a “catalyst”.

Report by Morgan Hayiza

ZimAHEAD Project Officer.

Oxfam staff from UK, Germany, Scotland and Zimbabwe had an opportunity to visit the Community Health Clubs and rehabilitated water points in Masvingo Rural District of Zimbabwe, where ZimAHEAD implemented an OFDA funded Water and Sanitation Project through OXFAM GB. The project ended [...]]]> 01 December, 2011

Report by Morgan Hayiza

ZimAHEAD Project Officer.

Oxfam staff from UK, Germany, Scotland and Zimbabwe had an opportunity to visit the Community Health Clubs and rehabilitated water points in Masvingo Rural District of Zimbabwe, where ZimAHEAD implemented an OFDA funded Water and Sanitation Project through OXFAM GB. The project ended in June 2011.

The WASH Response to Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwe was implemented through the Community Health Club Approach, or simply the AHEAD Model. It was aimed at reducing the vulnerability of the at risk rural populations in the southern part of Masvingo Rural District to water and sanitation related diseases.

Masvingo RDC

The OXFAM team of six members met the  Masvingo Rural District Council, received by Mr. Nyatsanza who was representing the CEO for the District. Mr. Nyatsanza explained what the project had brought to the district in terms of behaviour change in  health and hygiene as well as infrastructure development in the form of rehabilitation of the water points. He expressed gratitude also with the level of capacity building that the district had received through the various trainings that ZimAHEAD and OXFAM had done.

He also explained how ZimAHEAD did the Health Promotion and the effects thereafter to the population of their district  in the form of increased number of household pot racks, refuse pits, and hand washing facilities (the tippy tap). He also mentioned that the rehabilitation of boreholes had come as a relief to the district and stressed that although good work was done, there still was a need to scale the good work up in other wards which still have water problems. He commended the tremendous exceeding of the targeted 8 boreholes to an actual of 15 boreholes rehabilitated achieved during training.

On behalf of the district he appealed to the visitors for more funding to enable blanket coverage of the district in rehabilitation as well as health promotion. Mr. Nyatsanza then accompanied the team to the Field where we visited ward 23.

The team had an opportunity to see  for themselves the characteristics of a model home. The point was well swept with a refuse pit; a pot rack and a hand wash facility. Along the road in the ward, we could see these health enabling facilities clearly in the households nearby- the presence of such signifies membership and subscription to a community health club.

Thenthe team visited the home of one of the Community Based Facilitators (CBF), Mrs. Kokerai. She explained how she had started her club and the hygiene sessions which led to the graduations. She proudly showed the team her certificate of graduation. Her home actually depicted a model home with all the health enabling facilities present and nicely kept. Her husband who is also a member of their club reiterated how the program had helped in addressing problems of communicable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea and skin diseases in their area.

Asked about how she felt about being a facilitator, Mrs. Kokerai told the visitors that she felt great to have been leading big group of 196 people in her club. She was particularly exited by the response by the people in putting up the health enabling facilities at their individual homes.

She told the delegation that almost every household in her village had started in one way or the other construction of a BVIP without any subsidy. All questions were answered satisfactorily and the team was impressed by the confidence and knowledge that the CBF exhibited.

The team had a chance to visit Nyajena Rural Hospital where we were welcomed by the Nurse in Charge there, Mr. Chimhundu. He briefed the team on the impact of the program with regard to disease control. Diarrhoeal diseases related deaths were said to be high before the intervention but now it was a thing of the past. The prevalence of skin diseases and ARIs were also said to have gone down significantly owing to the improved KAPP because of the project.

From his own observation, personal and home hygiene had improved remarkably for the first time in eight years, the time he had been working at the centre.  He made mention of the cleaning campaigns which were held periodically at the health centre, schools and in the villages. He also told the team about his attendance to some of the graduation ceremonies held in the ward and said that these were very influential in the dissemination of information, especially the songs, drama and dances which were performed.

Lastly the team went to view one of the rehabilitated boreholes about two kilometers from the health centre. As we got there we found the water point locked as a sign of management and responsibility. Mr. Chimhundu who was still with us said the people gave each other timetables for drawing water from the borehole. He  also talked about the rehabilitation of boreholes which came as huge relief to their community as they were drawing drinking water from shallow wells and the nearby river.

Mr. Nyatsanza from The RDC gave a vote of thanks to the visitors for taking interest to visit their district and again he appealed to OXFAM to provide more support so that the work could be spread to other areas in the district. We then wished our visitors a safe journey back to Harare as well as their various destinations beyond the Zimbabwean boarders.

November, 2011

Regis Matimati, Director of  Programmes

ZimAHEAD team was at it again in 2010 scoring major    public health goals with outstanding achievements in all our programming areas. The EC funded project in partnership with Mercy Corps drew to an end in October 2010 after three years  of building [...]]]> For full 2010 Annual Report

November, 2011

Regis Matimati, Director of  Programmes

ZimAHEAD team was at it again in 2010 scoring major    public health goals with outstanding achievements in all our programming areas. The EC funded project in partnership with Mercy Corps drew to an end in October 2010 after three years  of building community   capacity to address health and nutrition in Buhera, Chipinge and Chiredzi. All project targets were exceeded at no extra cost. (See Annual Report, page 9)

In partnership with Oxfam on an OFDA funded project, we burst into national limelight  which resulted into phenomenal hardware outputs, thanks to our Programme Manager, Andrew Muringaniza. After only six months of software promotion, the Chiredzi community, constructed over 235 top of the range latrines and thousands other health and hygiene enabling facilities with zero subsidies. Two Directors from Ministry of Health, from the Department of Environmental Health, and the Department of Infrastructure Development, toured the area and were spell bound by what they saw. Even the National Coordination Unit’s Coordinator was surprised by what the communities did with stimulation from ZimAHEAD in Chiredzi and Masvingo urban. Communities took control, showing accountability, ownership and responsibility over their own health and development spurred by the motivation in the health club sessions. (See Annual Report, page 10)

In particular the Garikai community attracted attention. Once they were the black spot of Masvingo town looked down upon by other residents of Masvingo. Their place is now a symbol of health after they joined the clubs and cleaned their area, they are now proud of their homes and walk with heads held high, a big difference from the past. (See page 11).  ADRA and ACF contracted us to offer them training and backstopping support and this was done to satisfaction, training their teams in Gokwe North and Matabeleland South.

Protracted Relief Programme II

The PRP 2 is the second phase of aid to Zimbabwe by various donors with funds managed by the consultancy GRM supporting 22 national and international NGOs that contracted IWSD with assistance  from ZimAHEAD to offer training and support, with a focus on introducing the CHC approach across the country. This training and evaluation work took us across the country backstopping a total of 22 NGOs implementing WASH projects in the districts. Most of the NGOs caught onto the CHC methodology and are doing well in their respective districts of operation. It is sad though to note that some have not achieved much and we identify the cause as certain institutional values that conflict with community empowerment and does not encourage true development partnership.

The whole year we participated effectively on the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) and WASH cluster. The ‘SAG’  is a small group of about 9 NGOs (3 of them local) which sit together with Unicef and ECHO to advise the National WASH cluster on interventions in the sector. Zim AHEAD methodology is attracting attention from both government and other NGO partners.  Although we are a small local NGO, we are at the cutting edge of development and our innovative ideas are highly sought after by international NGOs. However from past experience we are now wary of  ‘development capitalism’, and we are now seeking partners which demonstrate equity in their working relationship with local NGOs.  After years of small projects, we have proven our CHC approach and seek to scale up to national level. To this end we are working hard to institutionalise our  community-capacitating methodology within the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (Environmental Health Department) so that communities throughout Zimbabwe have to access this means of community empowerment.

City Authorities and Residents Joining Up

by Regis Matimati - Director of Programmes, ZimAHEAD

ZimAHEAD  has observed that city councils and residents can jointly own up to the waste menace if they sit together to identify and plan on ways to solve the sanitation challenge. What needs to be done first [...]]]> December, 2011.

City Authorities and Residents Joining Up

by Regis Matimati - Director of Programmes, ZimAHEAD

ZimAHEAD  has observed that city councils and residents can jointly own up to the waste menace if they sit together to identify and plan on ways to solve the sanitation challenge. What needs to be done first is creating a full realization that waste is everyone’s problem and shifting from the ‘blame game’ where residents blame council for none collection of refuse and councils blaming residents for illegal dumping.

Background

The economic meltdown of 2008 in Zimbabwe affected the ability of local councils to effectively manage service delivery in the cities.  Urban authorities became incapacitated to deliver services like waste management and refuse started pilling up blocking and barricading roads in most places. City environments became an eyesore due to waste and the stench that emanated from the waste was so severe and overpowering. Residents waited in vain for the refuse trucks and eventually emptied their refuse bins on any available open spaces until these became unreachable and the trash encroached onto the roads. City councils, the duty bearers, could not collect the refuse as their refuse trucks where breaking down or in a state of disrepair due to the economic downturn.

The Project

With funding from OFDA and UNOCHA through Oxfam, ZimAHEAD went into Mutare (2009) and Masvingo  (2010). Contracts were signed between the cities and ZimAHEAD for the organisation to run community and school health clubs with residents and schools. The clubs would facilitate community action to bring back the glory to the cities by clean ups which were ran by the communities themselves through the community and school health clubs. The clubs created an increased awareness on waste related diseases as well as ways and means through which communities could take action to be safe. Jointly working with both the residents and the city health departments, an increased responsibility, accountability, control and ownership was created within both parties.

The residents started segregating their household waste; burying the biodegradable, reusing the plastics as plant and flower pots, taking the composted refuse into their gardens as manure and that left very little to throw away. Refuse bins became less heavy and council staff and trucks became better able to move the greatly reduced waste bulk.

Collectively the Community Health Clubs  and School Health Clubs mobilized themselves and carried out mass clean up campaigns that left the cities very clean. Subsequent clean ups mopped up the ever dwindling illegally dumped waste until such a time when almost every one in the city became conscious of proper waste  management and the habit of illegal dumping died. During the clean up campaigns councils prioritised and provided waste removal vehicles in sync with the cleaning schedules.

Commitment from the City Fathers.

The AHEAD (Applied Health Education And Development) model of the community health clubs can galvanise communities to take action but this would not achieve much where there is no equal commitment from the city fathers. Both councils in Mutare and Masvingo measured up by providing clean-up equipment and tools, refuse removal trucks through committed Environmental Health Departments. We worked together from the start to the finish with the departments of health. Dedicated environmental health staff was deployed to this cause and hence there was improved communication between council and residents.

Everyone in Zimbabwe will agree that Sakubva (Mutare) and Mucheke (Masvingo) are the cleanest high density suburbs in the country at the moment owing to the Common Unity that prevails between the city fathers and the residents as facilitated by the Community Health Clubs.

Since 1984 Project WET has been reaching out to children, parents, teachers and the community worldwide with information on water resources and how to preserve them. Their advocacy is now being recognised throughout the USA and 50 Countries worldwide where their training and  high quality training materials are being used [...]]]> 13^th-16^th September. 2011.

Since 1984 Project WET has been reaching out to children, parents, teachers and the community worldwide with information on water resources and how to preserve them. Their advocacy is now being recognised throughout the USA and 50 Countries worldwide where their training and  high quality training materials are being used to inspire the next generation with a respect for the Blue Planet. The Conference brought together over 200 people from all over 40 countries the world to share experiences and ideas for effective communication that leads to action. The highlight was NASA Educator and Astronaut Ricky Arnold, sharing his experience of seeing the earth from space, and actress Connie Nielsen promoting her future community center in Kibera, Kenya, as well as inspirational addresses from representatives of leading agencies such as Habitat emphasizing values based development.

The Directors of Africa AHEAD were honoured to have been selected to take part in the proceedings, presenting a paper on the importance of knowledge as a basic motivation for behaviour change towards a safer environment in rural communities.

http://www.projectwet.org/pdfs/conference-2011/Waterkeyn-CS3.pdf

Most of the participants were school teachers from across the USA, and it was therefore a novelty to hear our community perspective which attracted much interest as to the challenges that are faced in Africa.  We came away with many new ideas and contacts, and we were particularly pleased to establish a new partnership with an American NGO, BARKA FOUNDATION, who are keen to introduce Community Health Clubs into villages  in Burkino Faso where they are working. They have asked Africa AHEAD to help them adapt the CHC approach for a new country.

A new text book, ‘The Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide’ was launched at the Conference, which should provide an invaluable resource for schools with innovative ideas for practical activities based on sound knowledge.  Now in full color, it  offers new activities on topics such as National Parks and storm water,  and the very best activities gathered from all of Project WET’s publications. Suitable for educators at all levels and subjects, Guide 2.0 is available as part of a Project WET workshop or training.  Copies of the original guide are still in stock and available to Project WET Host Institutions.  For more information on how to obtain this worthwhile resource for training in schools see the webiste:

http://www.projectwet.org/project-wet-conferences/sustaining-the-blue-planet

http://www.slideshare.net/WaterCentre/wash-2011-community-based-environmental-health-promotion-programme