Purpose and overview:
This comic book in Khmer is a children-friendly tool to support school safety by raising awareness and prevention of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, zika and chikungunya, with the key messages: clean up, cover up and keep it up.
Usage: Training, awareness-raising materials
Audience: Communication staff, volunteers, youth
For versions in other languages, see:
Dengue, Chikungunya and more recently the Zika virus pose an increasing threat to vulnerable populations worldwide. All of these vector-borne diseases are endemic to various countries in Asia and Pacific and in some countries infection rates, particularly of Dengue, have reached alarming proportions.
On 6 to 8 December 2016, the Viet Nam Red Cross Society, in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies organized a mosquito-borne diseases workshop for Red Cross health workers from four National Societies of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam. The workshop, which was supported by the Finnish and New Zealand Red Cross Societies, focused on improving the participants’ knowledge around vector-borne diseases and exploring solutions to issues faced by the health workers in their respective communities. The workshop was also an opportunity to pilot the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya Prevention Toolkit recently developed by the IFRC.
The four Southeast Asia countries have seen a similar rise in dengue cases. In Viet Nam, nearly 99,000 dengue cases were reported in 2016, as opposed to around 83,000 cases in 2015. There have been reports of 93 Zika virus cases in the country, 77 of which occurred in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest city.
“Having this type of training is crucial at this point in time, as it will help us as health workers to address the situation before it worsens,” said Dao Thi Thanh Tam, Under-Secretary General and the Director of Healthcare Department for the Viet Nam Red Cross Society.
“This was a very participatory training where everyone got the chance to be involved,” said Sok Long, the Director of the Healthcare Department at the Cambodian Red Cross. “Throughout the workshop, there was a lot of practical sessions, that will help us apply theory into practice for our work in the community.”
Kym Blechynden, the IFRC’s Regional Emergency Health Coordinator for Asia Pacific, says that mosquito-borne diseases including Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya kill more than 725,000 people globally each year.
“These diseases are largely preventable and we must do more to stop what has become a silent disaster,” she says. “The IFRC is partnering with National Societies across Asia-Pacific to roll out a new Zika-Dengue-Chikunguya (ZDC) Toolkit which enables communities to take action to eliminate mosquito breeding sites and prevent transmission.”
The Toolkit contains Community and School Prevention Modules and a toolkit of resources and games to print out and use. It can be used by Red Cross volunteers and anyone working with communities to pass on knowledge and skills in prevention and response on Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya. It helps volunteers and communities to understand the cause, symptoms, treatment and the prevention of these diseases. The resource can be adapted and used in existing community health programmes and activities, integrated with other sector activities and it can also be adapted for use in emergencies and after disasters.
As climate change shifts the distribution of mosquitoes to new areas, mosquito control programmes, community empowerment and awareness campaigns are proven strategies to reduce the impacts of vector-borne diseases. Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers play a key role in their community, particularly in school outreach programmes and activities targeted around prevention efforts. These community-based activities need to be sustained to ensure long-lasting disease control.
During the workshop the participants took part in piloting the Toolkit’s usability and effectiveness. On the last day participants worked in their National Society groups to plan how they could integrate mosquito-borne disease prevention activities into core business and how the Toolkit activities could be included into current or proposed programmes and activities.
Copies of the Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya Toolkit can be downloaded from here:
Purpose:
The Zika, dengue and chikungunya prevention school / youth module is intended for volunteers, educators, and peer educators teaching children from ages 7 – 16 in a school or youth club setting about the transmission, symptoms, treatment and prevention methods to address Zika, dengue and chikungunya (ZDC).
Overview:
The school / youth module is comprised of 5 topics which should be taught in sequential order. The included tools, talking points and activities allows children to learn in an interactive way about how ZDC is transmitted, how to prevent mosquito bites and reduce mosquito populations through collective school community action and social and behavior change techniques as well as what to do if a child suspects that s/he or a family member thinks they may have contracted Zika, dengue or chikungunya. The materials also address stigma associated with ZDC and help to set a supportive environment for preventing disease as a collective group through ongoing school community action.
Usage: Guideline for implementation
Audience: National Society staff and volunteers
See also the toolkit series of:
The Ministry of Public Health reported in 2015 that there was high coverage of malaria and dengue fever outbreak in Lao PDR, in particular in the southern provinces of Lao PDR, among these, Champasak Province had the highest situation. In order to prevent the incidence of these diseases outbreak, Lao Red Cross has organized a training to build capacity for Lao Red Cross staff at district and provincial levels in epidemic control for them to transfer these knowledge and skills to communities in the areas under their responsibility.
This is the first roll out of CBHFA Mosquito-Borne Diseases and Vector Control and Epidemic Control for Volunteers in Lao PDR to provide and increase the capacity building of Red Cross health personnel working in four provinces located in the deep south of Lao PDR i.e. Sekong, Saravane, Attapeu and Champasak provinces. These four provinces are the risk-prone areas of dengue and malaria epidemics.
In the four key topics of ECV there were group-work discussion, “Zap that mosquito” game and role plays, health-education practices and community mappings using a community tool focusing on three diseases – Dengue and Zika, Diarrhea and Polio, which were highlighted and demonstrated to the participants. The results of True/False/Not Sure pre-test and post-test showed that the participants’ knowledge was significantly improved from 73% to 96% respectively.
There were 15 health personnel from the health divisions of four Red Cross provincial branches actively participating in this first roll-out training course. There were ten female and five male representatives from the four provinces. The theory and practical sessions were employed with ECV manual, epidemic’s response cycle, principle of epidemiology, community tools, action tools, and disease tools, in Lao language.
For the next step, Lao Red Cross is planning to organize the ECV training for community volunteers in Muang Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province, during 19-21 December 2016. There will be 20 community volunteers and 10 teachers participating in the ECV training in the district level. This initiative scale-up will be useful for the villagers and communities in preparing for community health preparedness and response to the epidemics and the outbreaks beforehand.
Especially, the community volunteers will be familiarized and conceptualized themselves with the ECV manual and disease tools, action tools, and community tools before the epidemics occur in their communities.
Copies of the Denue, Zika, and Chikungunya Toolkit can be downloaded from here:
Download:
Purpose:
The Zika, dengue and chikungunya prevention toolkit is intended to be used with the Zika, dengue and chikungunya prevention modules. The toolkit features full-colour imagery, interactive formats and games material to teach all audiences according to the methodology suggested in the module guides.
Overview:
Usage: Guidance for project implementation
Audience: National Society staff and volunteers
See also other related toolkits:
Purpose:
The Zika, dengue and chikungunya prevention community module is intended for volunteers teaching and coaching adults (ages 17 +) about the transmission, symptoms, treatment and prevention methods to address Zika, dengue and chikungunya (ZDC).
Overview:
The community module is comprised of 5 topics which we advise teaching in sequential order for maximum effect. The included tools, talking points and activities allows volunteers to teach communities in an interactive way about how ZDC is transmitted, how to prevent mosquito bites and reduce mosquito populations through community action and social and behavior change techniques as well as what to do if a community thinks they may have contracted Zika, dengue or chikungunya. The materials also address stigma associated with ZDC and helps to set a supportive environment for preventing disease as a collective group through ongoing community
action.
Usage: Guidance for project implementation
Audience: Technical staff and volunteers
See also the toolkit series of: