National immunization weeks
BRAC assisted the government in five major supply-and-de-mand aspect of the programme.according to Abed et al.these were :
1. assistance creating demand : BRAC health workers visited each household .educating mothers and fathers on the six deadly diseases and telling them to get their children immunized when the government health workers reach their village .they also organized public meetings in each village before immunization day in order to increase awareness of and demand for vaccinations.
2. assistance in planning and advocacy : before immunization started in a sub-district.advocacy and planning exercises were organized with government officials and local elites .BRAC workers facilitated by helping the local Epi staf in organizing these meeting and making decisions regarding the role of various persons
3. assintace in training : BRAC provided training to mid-level and lower-level government staff on social mobilitazion and management aspects of ept.BRAC also selected and trained local volunteers to work for ept.
4. assintance in policy formulation : BRAC was represented at the national steering committee on ept,headed by the health secretary.with inputs and feedback provided to this committee,BRAC assisted the government in formulating and modifying policies .also was representatedat sub-district-level coordination committees and participated at the weekly communication sub-committee meetings.in Dhaka
5. assistancein research and monitoring : undertook research and evaluation activies .through process documentation it regulary made observational studies on various aspect of the programme.the research and evaluation division conducted independent coverage surveys .moreover depth study on the perception the profile volunteers.result from such studies were fed back headquarters for incorporation in programme plants.
In total .assisted the government in 147 out of 460 subdistricts of Bangladesh .the value of involvement became most apparent in February 1991.when the result of the national coverage evaluation survey were announced.the result reflected directly the support and similar support from rangpur-dinajpur rural services in the very north of rajshani.where was achieved.demonstrating how ngos and government can happily collaborate in universal social programmes.
It is interesting that nearly 75 percent of mothers were also aware of the number of injections.such a high degree of knowledge and awareness was the consequence of intensive field visits person-person contact and communication.as well as close supervision effected by the programme.training has been immensely useful in enhancing the completencies of the field personnel.nearly three fourths of all the procedures taught were correctly applied at the vaccination sites.more strikng was that the involvement of the community in palnning and reaching out fpr cliens.contributed to an anhanced coverage and a decrease in drop-uots.
National immunization weeks
In 1990.it was decided that there was definitely a need to concentrate social mobilization efforts for a final drive towards the goal.since it is difficlt to maintain the energy needed for such activities over a long period of time,it was decided that three national immunization weeks would be held at the end of September .october and November .during these weeks there was an increase in social mobilization activities but no requested change in time.place or frequency of service delivery.throughout the country during these weeks.an enormous number of activities took place : review meetings,rallies,exhibitions,television and radio announcements and left outs.with special emphasis on measles vaccination coverage,which was far behind other antigens.
Coverage levels rose significantly during October to December 1990 in spite of the fact that the country was raked by political turmoil in the overthroe of a president the programme carried on,indicating that the process of social mobilization had taken it much beyond a normal government pragramme to wide-scale societal owner ship.
1. assistance creating demand : BRAC health workers visited each household .educating mothers and fathers on the six deadly diseases and telling them to get their children immunized when the government health workers reach their village .they also organized public meetings in each village before immunization day in order to increase awareness of and demand for vaccinations.
2. assistance in planning and advocacy : before immunization started in a sub-district.advocacy and planning exercises were organized with government officials and local elites .BRAC workers facilitated by helping the local Epi staf in organizing these meeting and making decisions regarding the role of various persons
3. assintace in training : BRAC provided training to mid-level and lower-level government staff on social mobilitazion and management aspects of ept.BRAC also selected and trained local volunteers to work for ept.
4. assintance in policy formulation : BRAC was represented at the national steering committee on ept,headed by the health secretary.with inputs and feedback provided to this committee,BRAC assisted the government in formulating and modifying policies .also was representatedat sub-district-level coordination committees and participated at the weekly communication sub-committee meetings.in Dhaka
5. assistancein research and monitoring : undertook research and evaluation activies .through process documentation it regulary made observational studies on various aspect of the programme.the research and evaluation division conducted independent coverage surveys .moreover depth study on the perception the profile volunteers.result from such studies were fed back headquarters for incorporation in programme plants.
In total .assisted the government in 147 out of 460 subdistricts of Bangladesh .the value of involvement became most apparent in February 1991.when the result of the national coverage evaluation survey were announced.the result reflected directly the support and similar support from rangpur-dinajpur rural services in the very north of rajshani.where was achieved.demonstrating how ngos and government can happily collaborate in universal social programmes.
It is interesting that nearly 75 percent of mothers were also aware of the number of injections.such a high degree of knowledge and awareness was the consequence of intensive field visits person-person contact and communication.as well as close supervision effected by the programme.training has been immensely useful in enhancing the completencies of the field personnel.nearly three fourths of all the procedures taught were correctly applied at the vaccination sites.more strikng was that the involvement of the community in palnning and reaching out fpr cliens.contributed to an anhanced coverage and a decrease in drop-uots.
National immunization weeks
In 1990.it was decided that there was definitely a need to concentrate social mobilization efforts for a final drive towards the goal.since it is difficlt to maintain the energy needed for such activities over a long period of time,it was decided that three national immunization weeks would be held at the end of September .october and November .during these weeks there was an increase in social mobilization activities but no requested change in time.place or frequency of service delivery.throughout the country during these weeks.an enormous number of activities took place : review meetings,rallies,exhibitions,television and radio announcements and left outs.with special emphasis on measles vaccination coverage,which was far behind other antigens.
Coverage levels rose significantly during October to December 1990 in spite of the fact that the country was raked by political turmoil in the overthroe of a president the programme carried on,indicating that the process of social mobilization had taken it much beyond a normal government pragramme to wide-scale societal owner ship.