Increasing local participation in monitoring and learning to improve WASH services in schools

Implemented by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and financed by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Kom-Yilma (happy, healthy child) project promotes improved hygiene practices throughout 108 “WASH-friendly” schools in the provinces of Bam and Sanmatenga in Burkina Faso. In order to effectively involve local stakeholders, including teachers, students and parents, CRS has incorporated innovative participatory practices into the Kom-Yilma project’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system. The local communities and government stakeholders play a central role in assessing the school’s progress towards project goals (through community self-assessments and joint monitoring visits), which not only increases local ownership of the project, but also contributes to sustainable behaviour change

Community quality control monitoring of latrines and boreholes in the Central North Region of Burkina Faso

With funding from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Catholic Relief Services implemented the Kom-Yilma project, “Happy and Healthy Children.” The program served 118 schools in two provinces in the Central North region of Burkina Faso, Bam and Sanmatenga, from March 2014 to August 2017. The purpose of the program was to encourage the adoption of key hygiene practices by the teachers, students, as well as to facilitate access to water and sanitation through social behavior change strategies and by building sex segregated, child-friendly latrines and boreholes. The Kom-Yilma team developed a community accountability approach to more effectively empower and involve local communities in the process of constructing sound infrastructure. This strategy not only ensures the construction quality of the latrines and boreholes, but also sustainable buy-in and community ownership of these new latrines and boreholes so the communities maintain them after the project

Menstrual hygiene management to improve the attendance of primary school-aged girls in Central North, Burkina Faso

How to improve the conditions for girls to attend school, to reduce failure and drop-out rates of adolescent girls, while ensuring their dignity and protection? This was the consideration that motivated the Kom-Yilma project, implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Burkina Faso and financed by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, to undertake a behavior-change strategy for menstrual-hygiene management in 118 schools in Bam and Sanmatenga Provinces. Discussions and behavior-change communication activities, providing an appropriate space for girls and the active participation of women leaders have already demonstrated positive results for a subject generally considered taboo in the intervention zone

Haematological consequences of acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria: a WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network pooled analysis of individual patient data

Background: Plasmodium falciparum malaria is associated with anaemia-related morbidity, attributable to host, parasite and drug factors. We quantified the haematological response following treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria to identify the factors associated with malarial anaemia. Methods: Individual patient data from eligible antimalarial efficacy studies of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria, available through the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network data repository prior to August 2015, were pooled using standardised methodology. The haematological response over time was quantified using a multivariable linear mixed effects model with nonlinear terms for time, and the model was then used to estimate the mean haemoglobin at day of nadir and day 7. Multivariable logistic regression quantified risk factors for moderately severe anaemia (haemoglobin < 7 g/dL) at day 0, day 3 and day 7 as well as a fractional fall ≥ 25% at day 3 and day 7. Results: A total of 70,226 patients, recruited into 200 studies between 1991 and 2013, were included in the analysis: 50,859 (72.4%) enrolled in Africa, 18,451 (26.3%) in Asia and 916 (1.3%) in South America. The median haemoglobin concentration at presentation was 9.9 g/dL (range 5.0–19.7 g/dL) in Africa, 11.6 g/dL (range 5.0–20.0 g/dL) in Asia and 12.3 g/dL (range 6.9–17.9 g/dL) in South America. Moderately severe anaemia (Hb < 7g/dl) was present in 8.4% (4284/50,859) of patients from Africa, 3.3% (606/18,451) from Asia and 0.1% (1/916) from South America. The nadir haemoglobin occurred on day 2 post treatment with a mean fall from baseline of 0.57 g/dL in Africa and 1.13 g/dL in Asia. Independent risk factors for moderately severe anaemia on day 7, in both Africa and Asia, included moderately severe anaemia at baseline (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 16.10 and AOR = 23.00, respectively), young age (age < 1 compared to ≥ 12 years AOR = 12.81 and AOR = 6.79, respectively), high parasitaemia (AOR = 1.78 and AOR = 1.58, respectively) and delayed parasite clearance (AOR = 2.44 and AOR = 2.59, respectively). In Asia, patients treated with an artemisinin-based regimen were at significantly greater risk of moderately severe anaemia on day 7 compared to those treated with a non-artemisinin-based regimen (AOR = 2.06 [95%CI 1.39–3.05], p < 0.001). Conclusions: In patients with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria, the nadir haemoglobin occurs 2 days after starting treatment. Although artemisinin-based treatments increase the rate of parasite clearance, in Asia they are associated with a greater risk of anaemia during recovery

Towards an Atlas of Lakes and Reservoirs in Burkina Faso

International audienc

Inadequate childcare practices as a determinant of long term malnutrition in 6-23 months old children from a rural district of Burkina Faso.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe