Workshops to keep kids safe and healthy
Mon, 22 February 2010
I learnt more than I was expecting. As a manager of the house now I know that you need well developed staff to work with so that they know the importance of record keeping, CPR and when to worry about the children’s health.” – Project beneficiary
Progress Report 2: Bigshoes Foundation Basic Child Health Training Programme (http://www.sasix.co.za/projects/view/BH-GP-MAR08-0002/)
The Bigshoes Foundation Basic Child Health Training Programme is a 12-month programme running from April 2009 to March 2010. It will target 250 caregivers working in children’s homes and in communities in the Johannesburg area. These caregivers will be trained in basic child health skills so that they can meet the health care needs of the children in their care. Training will be delivered through 10 five-day workshops with approximately 25 caregivers at each workshop. Five of the workshops will focus on Children’s Home care giving, while the other five will focus on Community Member care giving.
Caregivers will be able to monitor the development of each child and look out for signs of danger. This will help relieve some the burden on the public health care system and Bigshoes’ medical clinics and outreach, which will allow for them to concentrate on more complex medical problems, accurate HIV diagnosis and adoption medicals.
Outputs and Impact
- CPR Resuscitation dolls and booklets were purchased in February 2009
- Thus far, 158 caregivers have received training through nine workshops of five days each. Five Children’s Home Caregiver workshops and four Community Member workshops were held from February to October 2009. While the aim was to train 25 caregivers per workshop, average attendance was 18 caregivers at each workshop.
- During the five-day training workshops, the caregivers received training on basic health care, HIV management and palliative care. The training enabled the caregivers to efficiently manage day-to-day illnesses and injuries. They learned how to apply first aid when required, administer ARV medication appropriately, manage common childhood illnesses at home and monitor the children’s development. Caregivers were trained to recognize early warning signs of serious conditions and seek medical attention. The training has made children less dependent on overburdened clinics and hospitals for problems that can be safely managed at home.
- Results from comparisons of pre- and post-workshop tests for the nine workshops indicate that caregivers have improved their knowledge by approximately 25%.
- Training caregivers has a far-reaching impact. Assuming the 158 trained caregivers each have approximately seven children in their care, approximately 1100 children will benefiting from this project.
- Bigshoes doctors attended the fourth International AIDS Conference, while doctors and training staff also attended the Paediatric Palliative Care Conference. The workshop trainer attended training as part of her continued medical education. This included attending a debriefing course on grief and loss and an international conference run by Children’s Hospice International.
Expenditure
The cost of the project is R258,460, of which R196,816 has been paid. One remaining tranche payment of R61,644 is yet to be paid.
| Description | Budget | Expenditure |
| Purchase Of Resuscitation Dolls | 19 500 | 21 313 |
| CPR Booklets with Resuscitation Kits | 11 970 | 11 212 |
| Purchase Of Stationery for the year | 5 000 | 5 139 |
| Monthly Portion half Post trainer | 23 040 | 15 360 |
| Monthly Position locums | 41 180 | 27 453 |
| Monthly Portion of HR/ Fundraiser | 34 000 | 22 667 |
| Monthly Portion of Project/Finance Manger | 18 000 | 12 000 |
| Sessional Trainer | 57 600 | 26 250 |
| Training Manuals | 19 500 | 13 270 |
| Nashua Rentals | 1 040 | 832 |
| Telkom | 5 000 | 3 334 |
| Venue Hire | 2 000 | 1 800 |
| Travel | 2 400 | 3 428 |
| Continued Medical education | 13 230 | 7 000 |
| Cleaning | 5 000 | 4 000 |
| TOTAL | 258 460 | 175 058 |
With a few minor exceptions the project is on track as far as expenses are concerned. There was marginal over spend on the resuscitation dolls as they needed to be imported from Canada and import prices have increased since the original budget was put forward. The organisation managed to save on the purchase of CPR Booklets and Resuscitation Kits, but needs to reallocate this funding towards the unforeseen expense of replacing the plastic bags that form the lungs of the CPR manikins. There was also a saving on the printing of training manuals.
Challenges
- As in the first reporting period, there was a problem with late arrivals. This happened despite putting up adequate direction signage in the building, as well as sending directions to the participating organisations beforehand.
- Bigshoes tries to be as flexible as possible with workshop attendance, by allowing caregivers to complete four out of five days and return for the remainder (CPR training – one full day) when it is more convenient for them. They also have set up “catch-up” training which will include those who did not successfully complete the whole course. However, attendance rates remain low. Bigshoes have found an unfortunate correlation between non-attending trainees and organisations who have not contributed anything financially towards the training.
- Bigshoes tried improving training availability by offering training at the organisation premises. However, it was evident that training on site can be too distracting as trainees kept leaving the training area to feed children or were called out by other members of staff. In terms of setting up, it was also quite complicated to take all the equipment to the organisation, pack up and unpack on a daily basis.
Monitoring and evaluation
- Pre-tests were conducted on the first day of the workshop to determine the baseline for the level of information held by participating caregivers.
- Post tests were conducted on the last day of the workshop to indicate the change in content knowledge of participating caregivers.
- Pre and post test results for workshops from February through to October 2009:
| Description | Comm Org | Home Care | Comm Org | Home Care | Comm Org | Home Care | Comm Org | Home Care | Home Care | Avge |
| Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | ||
| Attendance (Aim:25) | 26 | 6 | 20 | 21 | 25 | 16 | 25 | 10 | 9 | 18 |
| Pre Test | 67% | 55% | 67% | 61% | 69% | 57% | 58% | 77% | 59% | 63% |
| Post Test | 81% | 87% | 80% | 77% | 78% | 71% | 72% | 79% | 79% | 78% |
| % Increase | 21% | 58% | 19% | 26% | 13% | 25% | 24% | 3% | 34% | 25% |
Conclusion and Evaluator Analysis
The project is nearing completion and has seen good results in terms of increasing caregiver knowledge. There have also been positive reports from the caregivers who attended the training.
The project has experienced some minor challenges, mainly with regards to attendance. However, Bigshoes have made a concerted effort to overcome these challenges, even going as far moving training to participating organisation’s premises.
The improved capacity of caregivers in this area will improve the basic health of the children in their care. It will also relieve the unnecessary burden on immediate clinics as caregivers are able to see to problems that would have previously been referred.
