We Care - Flyer

We Care

Strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health services provided by health care workers at the local level in Bangladesh

Project Duration: 1 July 2019 – 30 December 2021

Funded by: Kingdom of the Netherlands/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by Nuffic.

Partners: NIPORT, DGFP (Bangladeshi partners) | KIT, Rutgers, Niketan and RedOrange (Dutch partners)

Government policies in Bangladesh recognise that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services and information are crucial, however, the technical capacity of health workers to provide them needs to be strengthened, especially to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable women and men, young people, people with disabilities and people from minority groups.

“We Care” aims to change this by better equipping the health workers to deliver SRHR services at the union level and in communities and schools. The project also equips supervisors with the skills, attitudes and motivation needed to provide appropriate supervision to ensure inclusive SRHR information and service delivery.

The focus of the project includes Family Welfare Visitors (FWV), Family Welfare Assistants (FWA), Sub-Assistant Community Medical Officers (SACMO) and their supervisors: Family Planning Inspector (FPI) and Medical Officer Maternal & Child Health- Family Planning (MOMCH-FP).

Key elements in “We care” are:

Integration of evidence-informed, rights-based, disability friendly and gender-transformative approaches to SRH/R into the core curricula of SRH/R workers at union/ward level.

Focus on professional knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for inclusive information provision and service delivery.

Project Objective: Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SDG 3 and 5)

Long-term Impact: • Better information and greater freedom of choice for young people regarding their sexuality • Improved access to contraceptives and medicines • Better public and private health care for family planning, pregnancies and childbirth, including safe abortions • More respect for the sexual and reproductive rights of young people, people with disabilities, people from minority groups and groups who are currently denied these rights • While pursuing these long-term objectives, “We Care” will particularly focus on vulnerable women and men, including young people, people with disabilities and minorities.

Improved supervision and support for service providers.

Knowledge exchange and mutual learning with SRHR stakeholders.

Project Approach: The project will operate at multiple levels At the Institutional level: The project will address capacity needs of National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT) as well as Family Welfare Visitor Training Institutes and regional training centres by integrating SRHR, gendertransformative, rights-based and evidence-informed approaches into curricula.

At the Organizational and Educational level: The project will build on existing work on SRHR in Bangladesh by drawing upon the standalone SRHR curricula previously developed and the efforts made to change attitude and values and norms around SRHR.

At the Individual level: Teachers will be trained in SRHR and gender with a focus on vulnerable groups.

Project Outcomes: • 33 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) health institutes in Bangladesh have integrated a gender-transformative, human rights and evidence-informed approach as part of their comprehensive (pre-service) SRHR training for health workers • Improved supervision and support by 460 MOMCH/FPs to the FWVs, SACMOs, FWAs and FPIs. • Institutionalized use of evidence-informed approaches for curriculum improvement by the 33 TVET/ Higher Education institutes and the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) - Information Education and Motivation unit • Increased capacity of the project partners to contextualize relationships with government and TVET institutions at different levels of the complex health system in Bangladesh.

“We need more training on communication approaches with clients, there is a need to learn this.”

—Female SACMO during the We Care Training Needs Assessment

“These women come at the end of clinic hours and ask whether they can tell something secretly. They say that after menopause women have no desire for sex. Women ask what to do if their husband wants, as they are often afraid their husband will marry someone else – if she refused to have sex with him. I tell them just to keep their eyes shut and let their husband do, for the sake of the family. I don’t know if I am giving the right advice or not.”

—FWV indicating a need for better counselling skills around sexual and reproductive health during the We Care Training Needs Assessment

“I always thought that it is better for a person with disability to not know and practice a sexual life, but now, through training, I understand it is the same for every human being."

—Health Worker in Bangladesh indicating the need for more training around sexuality and disability during a SRHR training provided by Niketan

communication@kit.nl

www.kit.nl/project/we-care/