Transcript What are Care Groups?
Care Group TAG Highlights
Melanie Morrow Director of MCH Programs World Relief With input and selected slides from other CG TAG participants December 9, 2010
Description of a Care Group A Care Group is a group of 10-15 volunteer, community-based health educators who regularly meet together with project staff for training and supervision.
They are different from typical mother’s groups in that each volunteer is responsible for regularly visiting 10-15 of her neighbors, sharing what she has learned and facilitating behavior change at the household level.
Description (cont.)
Care Groups create a multiplying effect to equitably reach every beneficiary household with interpersonal behavior change communication.
They also provide the structure for a community health information system that reports on new pregnancies, births and deaths detected during home visits
World Relief Mozambique Vurhonga 2 Care Group Structure
5 WR Staff Supervisors 26 Health Animators (paid) 173 Care Groups of 10-15 Volunteers 10 Households per volunteer (24,200 total HH reached)
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 2007
Unicef State of the World’s Children 2008
Countries where Care Groups have been implemented
Bolivia Liberia Burundi Malawi Cambodia
Mozambique*
DRC Niger Ethiopia Philippines Guatemala Rwanda Indonesia Uganda Kenya Zambia * First Care Group Project in 1995, World Relief Mozambique
Care Group projects serving populations > 1 Million people
Food for the Hungry Mozambique Cost per beneficiary per year: $2.78
Kabeho Mwana EIP consortium in Rwanda using modified approach (Concern Worldwide, The IRC and World Relief) World Relief Mozambique SCIP
Key Messages from Care Group TAG
Care Groups are not meant to replace CHWs but they provide a means to extend the reach of CHWs to achieve high levels of household level behavior change associated with mortality reduction. Implementation of Care Groups at scale requires partnership with MOH, NGOs and communities.
CareGroupInfo.org