Get Kol Art Pik Welbodi Campaign

The campaign is designed to promte the following five RMNCH-related behaviours:

•     Attending at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits
•     Delivering a baby at a health facility
•     Going to the clinic immediately with any danger signs during pregnancy
•     Taking a child under five to a clinic when she/he is sick
•     Taking a child to a clinic every month for growth monitoring, vaccinations, and other preventative treatments.

The following are some of the key communication activities:

Radio - Developed with Search for Common Ground Sierra Leone, the Get Kol Art radio programme is airing on 31 national and community radio stations across the country from September 2016 to February 2017. The programme discusses RMNCH topics and inspiring community-led action, and features a compelling drama, community testimonials, interactive host dialogue, and listener feedback. A companion Get Kol Art Radio Listening Group Guide supports community-level discussion on the content introduced in each weekly episode. Also airing from October 2016 to February 2017 on these same radio stations are five radio spots featuring priority maternal and child health behaviours.

Print - Complementing the radio products are Get Kol Art Pik Welbodi print materials, which include posters promoting the importance of ANC visits and clinic deliveries. These are being distributed to all government health facilities in the country, with more disseminated to the five districts of Bombali, Port Loko, Tonkolili, and Western Urban and Rural areas.

Community Engagement - HC3 implements community engagement activities that seek to raise awareness, build skills, foster community-led solutions to RMNCH challenges, and strengthen linkages between communities and health facilities. Get Kol Art Pik Welbodi builds on HC3’s on-going community engagement activities in 25 health facilities and surrounding 75 communities in five districts, through local implementing partner GOAL. Dialogues and health facility makeovers where community members help make facilities more welcoming and functional strengthen a sense of community ownership for the facility, encouraging people to use the clinic for ANC, delivery, and other RMNCH related needs. Stories from these activities feed into the Get Kol Art radio programme.  Community engagement is facilitated through an experiential toolkit, Journey to a Bright Future.

Maternal health and child health

Following the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, HC3 has been working with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), Health Education Division (HED) to improve reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health (RMNCH) outcomes through social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) programming. As explained by HC3, “[R]ecovery from Ebola means repairing a health system that was under extreme duress during the outbreak, and restoring trust in this system, which was made more fragile as fear escalated and scarce resources were deployed to contain the disease. It’s important to note that even before the Ebola outbreak, only 54% of babies were delivered in health facilities and while infant and child mortality rates have improved in Sierra Leone over time, the maternal mortality rate is the highest the world. HC3 Sierra Leone uses a highly engaging and participatory approach to encourage community members to return to health facilities for maternal and child care - while also providing individuals with the skills and confidence to practice optimal RMNCH behaviors at home.”  Using a multi-pronged approach, HC3 Sierra Leone works to achieve the following: strengthen national level capacity in social and behaviour change communication; solidify linkages between communities and local health facilities; and increase the uptake of RMNCH behaviours including attendance at clinics in a timely manner. The Get Kol Art Pik Welbodi is the overarching campaign platform that seeks to contribute to the second and third objective.