School Health and Nutrition
Primary school enrollment has increased dramatically in recent years. Schools provide an opportunity to reach a majority of children with health and nutrition services, education and improved practices. The benefits are numerous: better health and nutrition ensures that children attend and perform well in school and grow up healthier. School children are able to positively influence their families and communities.
The Manoff Group applies Behavior-Centered ProgrammingSM to design
locally appropriate and effective behavior change strategies
to extend coverage of services and promote key practices that
improve educational and health outcomes. These strategies build
on formative research with students, their families and communities.
Trials of Improved Practices (TIPs) are often used to define
and test new practices. As a result, activities are tailored
to the specific needs of the community. The Manoff Group helped
develop, pretest and implement behavior-centered communications
(BCC) activities, ranging from interpersonal communication to
mass media to a school curriculum to promote key practices in
school and in homes and communities.
The Manoff Group has worked through the UPHOLD program in Uganda to promote children's safety in primary schools. The Safe School Contract (SSC) was developed with the Ministry of Education and Sports to prevent sexual harassment and intergenerational sex, as well as to educate students about early pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. SSC encourages children to identify "Safety Friends" who will accompany them to meetings with adults, and calls for dialogue among parents, teachers, principals, and PTAs. The Manoff Group has also provided technical assistance to Save the Children's School Health and
Nutrition (SHN) programs in Malawi, the Philippines and Bangladesh
and managed an anemia reduction SHN project in Egypt and a school
hygiene improvement project in the Dominican Republic.
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