Provide seed grant and technical support to Woodland Park Zoo for TKCP Project

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3.5 Provide seed grant and technical support to Woodland Park Zoo for TKCP Project

in PNG BALANCED is providing seed grant funding and technical assistance to the Woodland Park Zoo’s TKCP program in PNG. The 18-month seed grant will support the implementation of the “Healthy Village, Healthy Forest: Integrating Healthy Family Planning and Conservation in Papua New Guinea” project and is building TKCP’s capacity to integrate and implement a community-based family planning CBFP initiative into their conservation efforts. The project will focus on one region in the Yopno, Uruwa, and Som YUS Conservation Area YUS is the primary watershed in the region to achieve the following objectives: • Increase awareness among YUS families of family planning and its role in health, food, and environmental conservation • Improve access and use of FP methods and services During this reporting period, PFPI conducted two in-country support and assistance visits to TKCP project sites. The first visit was made by Dr. Joan Castro, BALANCED PTAL from February 26 to March 4 th . During this visit, she conducted a four-day workshop on PHE and how to develop a BCC strategy and integrated messages for the PHE activities. Workshop participants included five staff from the Province, District health departments and YUS. During the workshop, participants developed a BCC plan, drafted IEC messages, translated them into the local language tok pisin and pretested the messages amongst themselves and their friends, colleagues and family members. These IEC messages were incorporated into a poster, which was developed by PFPI staff due to the very limited graphic design capacity in PNG. Dr. Castro traveled again to PNG from May 27 to June 7, 2012 to conduct the TOT CBDPE workshop, set up the PE system and finalize the IEC messages and materials. Ten participants attended the TOT—seven HEWs from the TKCP project areas in the YUS region; two HEWs from the provincial and district Family Health service; one Conservation International in Milne Bay staff person who previously attended the Study Tour in the Philippines and one TKCP staff person. The CBDPE referral system was also established linking the services in the field with the provincial and district health post for FP commodities. For long-term methods, PFPI facilitated a link with Marie Stopes International MSI, which can provide for implant, interuterine device IUD and vasectomy methods. Also leveraged from MSI were IEC materials such as FP brochures, flipcharts, and comics for distribution at the health posts and by the PEs in the communities. TKCP also gathered existing FP IEC materials from the health department and other FP organizations for distribution andor replication. The IEC messages developed during the first TA visit and pretested again prior to the May trip were further improved and refined, resulting in the following messages: FOR A HEALTHY FAMILY, HEALTHY FOREST AND PRODUCTIVE LAND PHE theme • Plan Your Family • Have Your Children Immunized • Don’t Burn Grasslands • Don’t Hunt In Conservation Area 37 Since Dr. Castro’s last TA visit, a memorandum of understanding MOU between TKCP and MSI has been drafted for the provision of long-term FP methods to YUS project sites. The MOU is awaiting signature from both parties. Meanwhile, arrangements have been made with the HEWs from Gangalut and Sapmanga—two key health centers located in the YUS region—as the strategic venues where MSI and TKCP can provide future permanent and surgical FP methods. In the meantime, the trained YUS community HEWs are educating the community about long- term methods and collecting a list of interested FP users. The IEC poster will be printed and distributed during the next reporting period. Also, the trained TOT participants will recruit and train APEs during the months of August and September 2012. A streamlined version of the BMS instrument was also introduced for TKCP to gather additional changes in behavior in the community as a result of the project. The project team arranged for the APEs to use the form to collect data in the village every quarter and during their community meetings. The completed mini-BMS form will then be submitted to the Community Health Worker who will report the results to TKCP every three months. This will be in addition to the existing Nation Health Information System-Aidpost Monthly Summary data tally sheets that are collected for the Morobe Provincial Health Division. Because of the short duration of the project and the reduced seed grant funding, the YPE TOT will not be conducted. Instead, YPEs will be identified and trained by the health workers who participated in the TOT with supervision from BALANCED key staff in the next reporting period. Results from Activity 3.5 • TKCP incorporating PHE CBDPE system into their organization SO-1 • 5 people trained on BCC and IEC materials development 1.1 • 10 people trained on PHE PECBD systems 1.1 • 2 technical assistance visits to TKCP 1.4b. • TKCP replicating CBDPE systems and BMS into their activities in PNG 3.1

3.6 Provide seed grant and technical support to VEDCO and Bwindi Mgahinga