ZuZu and ZaZa in the stories


One of these stories was developed by Anise Waljee, long- time friend of Children for Health, and a founding trustee of the organisation. She created the story alongside colleagues familiar with the situation in Sierra Leone, and it was later illustrated by Children for Health’s favourite illustrator David Gifford. Entitled ‘A stone is a strange thing’, the story tells of a girl who loses her mother to Ebola, with a focus on the girl’s feelings. The intention is to encourage children in similar situations to discuss their feelings regarding the outbreak.


Recognising that children engage with fun characters, Children for Health have included their ambassadors as characters in the stories, the parrots Zuzu and Zaza, who help influence children to encourage their families to make good healthy choices.


Another way in which Children for Health make use of understanding what children like doing to enhance their programme is through a reward system based on collecting, an activity that children all over the world enjoy. Programme participants collect different coloured ribbons, each representing a particular health message, which they attach to a Rainbow Stick. A ribbon is earned once a child has learnt and shared the relevant message. As with all Children for Health activities, the emphasis is on engaging with and spreading the message, rather than just learning it by rote. The aim of the Rainbow Stick is to inspire each child to spread as many health messages as they can during their time in primary school.


Children for Health have been become involved in the response to the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone. Following a similar model as is used to spread ‘The 100’, messages were created to help children understand the epidemic and its impact. These messages are published on the ‘Safe, Strong and Smiling’ website, which is optimised for mobile access, making it easily and widely accessible to those working with children. They are called, ‘Children’s Champions’. The messages function as the basis for activities such as role-play, games and stories, which encourage children to explore their feelings about the outbreak further. Early results suggest that children in secondary schools are keen to become Children’s Champions themselves.


here is the link to safe strong and smiling website http://3s.apps.every1mobile.net/home/sss


The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2016


Children for Health has also been working in an advisory capacity for the Mozambican government’s ‘Children’s Participation in Action and Learning for Nutrition in Mozambique’ programme. Working in Tete Province, where 38% of children under five are malnourished, the organisation is advising on how best to engage children in learning about nutrition. Tete Province is pursuing a strategy based on weekly childrens’ clubs,


where representatives of each grade level are taught health and nutrition messages, which they then communicate to classmates at school. Children for Health have co-created a teacher’s guide, contributed to the monitoring and evaluation of the programme, and led workshops on how to expand the programme to three more schools. Currently, the programme reaches around 6,000 children and their families.


The programme is about insitutionalising an active approach to health education within the existing government system, rather than being a separate project. The ultimate objective is to expand the programme to all the schools in Tete province. As with ‘The 100’ programme, and their work in Sierra Leone, education at the childrens’ clubs is through interactive and fun methods, such as drama, singing, dancing, craft activities and dialogue with the family. Children for Health are helping to develop 4 storybooks and a recipe book too. The storybooks have plots that are based on actual things that have happened and they also feature Zuzu and Zaza.


The approach taken by Children for Health is to base its educational curriculum on the culture of the community in which it works. This methodology is


likely to become more prevalent as the era of the Millennium


Development Goals (MDGs) draws to a close, and the aims of the Sustainable ClareHanbury-Leu(néeHanbury, Class of 1977) of 19xx Class 19


Development Goals (SDGs) start to shape the ways in which NGOs work. OC


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