CDFU staff detailing IEC Materials used for campaigns.

Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies was the theme for this year’s Safe Motherhood Day Celebrations, organized by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with Mayuge district and stakeholders involved in Safe Motherhood activities.

The celebrations took place at Kigandalo Sub County, Mayuge district on October 30, 2009. The chief guest was the Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Stephen O. Malinga who emphasized the issue of appropriate age for one to start having children. He said  people should take into account when to start giving birth.

He cautioned that giving birth early (below 18 years) leads to too frequent births, leading to too many children, “breeding” health complications in women’s lives. He emphasized the need to focus on the unmet need for family planning.

On his part, the LC5 Chairman of Mayuge urged men to support their wives to practice family planning. He said there can never be a healthy mother without a responsible father. He further pointed out the lack of male involvement in family planning, the desire for many children and water scarcity as the three major problems affecting the health of women in Mayuge district.

Over 20 organizations graced the event by providing services and products in their respective exhibition stalls that promoted health for mothers and the entire community. CDFU displayed materials produced for different campaigns and projects promoting Safe Motherhood. The materials displayed included; Flip Charts, Posters,   Comic books, Flyers and trigger video CDs.

Other activities of the day included:

• Cervical cancer screening (by the Uganda Cancer Institute).
• Provision of Health Communication materials (Fact sheets, leaflets and posters) to the public.
• Enter-educate activities such as music, dance and drama performances with messages related to family planning. 

CDFU trainer facilitating a discussion in Mbarara district.

Training is one of our core services at CDFU; we have experience in managing, coordinating and implementing Behaviour change communication training programs, developing training guides and other materials to facilitate adult learning. The training guides we have produced include those that cover the following aspects: Peer Education, Documentation of Best Practices and Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation; and Social and Behaviour Change Communication. CDFU also develops participants’ hand books.

CDFU coordinates and implements training programs for other partners including non governmental organizations and International Organizations. In addition, we organize and manage training workshops on a range of issues including HIV and AIDS, Gender, Malaria control, Reproductive Health and Strategic Communication. We train trainers and also co-facilitate community based trainings. Our experience in conducting community based training sessions has enabled us conduct training of trainers’ sessions for different partners including Health Initiatives for the Private Sector (HIPS).

Other materials that can be developed by CDFU include:

Wall Charts

“Gestation-wheel”

Some of the community members during the dialogue session

CDFU is a partner in the AFFORD Project and continues to offer support for the Popular Opinion Leader (POL) intervention funded under the AFFORD Project/Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG). The POL intervention is being implemented on behalf of UHMG in 17 districts.

POLs are volunteers based in local communities who support the Good Life communication campaign. CDFU works closely with District Health officers, Community leaders and Community Based Organizations to implement the POL intervention.
 
CDFU works closely with 36 Community Based Partner Organizations (CBPOs) in 17 districts.  The POLs sensitize their community and network members on HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Family Planning and Child Health. They also participate in district based health events and those of the CBPOs to which they are attached. Some of the POLs are members of the Village Health Teams in their localities.