Health awareness network to improve women and children’s health in Amran

Women in Amran discuss how awareness network can improve family health.

A community health network has recently been established to reform the public health system in Amran province. The Social Awareness Network is a project by the Yemen Partners for Health Reform (YPHR) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It focuses in particular on improving maternal and infant health conditions and standards in the area. 

The network has the backing of eight NGO’s, which have pooled their resources in Amran for maximum effect.  Numerous women from various associations are participating as volunteer social activists and have received special training by the YPHR.

Yemen Observer went to Amran province and met with these social activists to share their experiences and find out about how they work, what they have learned, their difficulties and their future plans. The Observer also spoke to women who had received treatment from the network. 

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report (World Health Statistics 2008), Yemen’s infant mortality rate is composed as follows: 33.3 percent die from neonatal diseases, 19.8 percent from pneumonia, 16 percent die from diarrhea, 7.5 percent from malaria, 2.2 percent die from measles, and 3.7 percent from miscellaneous injuries.

The network has reached 1400 households in 5 districts of Amran to date. Nabila Mohammed al-Kayal, a social activist working with Suna’a al-Hayia Association (Life Makers) said that her work is most important in family homes and illiteracy centers. 

“We work hard at raising awareness in the community about the most important health issues, particularly reproductive health, smoking, family planning and hygiene,” she stated.      

According to Ms. al-Kayal, there has been a very positive response from local women, and their work has become more efficient since local schools and health centers began full cooperation with the organizations.

Disable girl explains how the awareness lessons helped her.

Especially in rural areas, women often lack awareness about some important health issues, so when they discovered that the network was operating in the nearby towns they came to find out how it could assist them. “We noticed that these women applied the lessons that they have learned, such as in family planning,” said Mayia Saleh al-Ward, who works with the Community Development Association, and is one of the network social activists. 

Ms. Al-Kayal advised all social activists who work in the network to educate people about the danger of rabies, a disease that has recently surfaced in Amran, causing several deaths, including in children. “We have been unable to convince health officials to help deal with this problem, and there was some news that a group of dogs ate a little boy in Amran governorate. We must do something,” she said.

Gamilah Ali al-Gharasi, chairman of al-Nibras Association, also participated in the Social Awareness Network, and thanked USAID for galvanizing the NGO’s in Amran province. “The network arranged all our work and also helped us to exchange the experiences with each other,” Ms. Al-Gharasi said.

She works in the General Administration of Illiteracy, so she takes the opportunity to teach as often as she can. “We did one lecture every week and we noticed unexpectedly strong results,” she added.

Ms. al-Gharasi described a story that was indicative of the poor level of child care in the community. “Once I noticed during my awareness work in one house a little girl who could not talk due to a throat sore and her parents refused to take her to the medical center,” she said. After encouraging her parents to take her to the medical center, they took her and she has improved since then.

The Social Awareness Network is essentially a group of private associations working together voluntarily to raise the health levels of individuals in the community. It intends to reach a large number of women and to use their efforts and resource for voluntary awareness work.

“The network also aimed to use women as agents for positive social change, and to reduce the diseases that spread among women and children,” said Amah al-Aleem al-Babli, who works with Suna’a al-Haya Association.

A targeted local woman talks about benefits she got from the awareness program.

The Observer met with one family who had experience with the work of the network. Ahmad Taher’s family has 10 children, and he said that they benefited from the awareness sessions by learning how to deal with children’s health and hygiene. “We also got a lot of information in how to arrange family planning,” said Ahmad Taher’s wife.  

A group of social activists who belong to the Family Care Association in Thulla district also discussed their participation in the Social Awareness Network for women and children in Thulla and villages around it. 

The social activists have a vision of the future continuation of the volunteer work and awareness in the health field among society members, especially women and children.

Ideally, they would like to hold a conference to unite all the bodies working in the field to share financial and institutional resources and reach all possible people. 

Currently, the network lacks sufficient financial support and they are afraid that the entire awareness network may fold. “The network will probably end if there is no financial support, and we hope to continue and expand our work,” said Ms. al-Gharasi.

There was a special focus on hearing and speech-disabled children, given their status as an entrenched underclass in society. Ahlam Abdul-Salam works with the Community Development Association and is very experienced at interacting with them and can communicate using sign language. “I instruct them on personal hygiene and in avoiding other diseases such as fevers and blood pressure problems,” Ms. Abdul-Salam said.

“They had very little knowledge about basic health care before I went to see them at al-Amal School for the Deaf and Mute. They were extremely happy when I began holding awareness courses for them,” she said. 

Approximately 36 hearing and speech-disabled students have benefited from the Social Awareness Network thus far. Hibah Abdullah, one of the students in al-Amal School said that she was taught a lot of important information such as the personal hygiene, first aid and tooth care. “We are very marginalized by the society and we thank all the social activists and the YPHR project for their help,” she said.

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