Refresher training and worms in a chicken

Post-mortems, vaccination and disease prevention were order of the day at this month’s Refresher Training. After mentoring visits over the summer, the Refresher Training for Primary Animal Heatlh Workers (PAHWs) was an opportunity to bring everyone together to share their experiences so far.

The workshop used learner-centred methods to ensure participants were actively involved and felt responsible for their own learning. Small group discussions were held on most topics, while games were injected throughout to maintain energy levels and review learning. We also did focus group discussions to assess the effectiveness of posters on disease diagnosis and treatment. The highlight of the workshop was by all accounts the post mortem exam led by NUOL and DAFO staff. The group discovered that compared to ducks, the chickens examined had a high proportion of intestinal parasites, including ascaris, tapeworm and cecal worm. This was an eye-opener about the importance of de-worming, and reflects the scavenging behaviours of local chickens.

At the end of each day of the workshop, the PAHWs gave feedback on the day and mentors deliberated on how to adapt the agenda. The mood barometer showed increasingly positive results with most of the PAHWs happy about their continued learning. The workshop also served as a launch pad for the upcoming Community Health Days, which we will recount in September!

Training of Trainers

Left-to-right: Sonia, Malavanh, Taffese, Daovy, Blanaid

This week we completed the Training of Trainers in preparation for our second PAHW training workshop. The Ecohealth team met with colleagues from the District Agriculture and Forestry Office, the University’s Faculty of Agriculture, and Environment, as well as the District health clinic, some of whom have been training and mentoring the PAHWs over the past six months.

Kolakoth and Daovy playing the balloon game

The objective of this 3-day workshop was to strengthen the mentors’ capacity in participatory learning techniques, to develop the content for the PAHW training and to brainstorm ideas for the Community Health Days that are being planned for this autumn. Participatory learning is particularly important in this context where the purpose of the work is to improve villagers’ practical skills. It also recognizes that the learners already possess a great deal of knowledge and allows them to exchange this information with the trainers and each other. The training emphasized how important it is for discussions and presentations to be interactive, and for participants to have fun! Everybody got their heart beat racing while playing the balloon game on the first day. As well as being a chance to play and laugh together, this was a lesson in cooperation and communication skills.

Chicken post mortem

Left-to-right: Tongtem (DAFO), Keo (DAFO), Taffese (VSF), Dehtaloon (NUOL)

The trainers also learned some new practical skills through Taffese’s laboratory session on “How to do a post mortem examination”. The trainers were very interested to enhance their diagnostic skills and are eager to pass this knowledge onto the PAHWs.