The orientation programmes, which started on Saturday 4th January 2025 at Sibanor, Foni Bintang District, was aimed at equipping Regional Health Team workers and the Multi-Disciplinary Facilitation Team (MDFT) to be able to identify two facilitators with basic criteria from each community.
The Positive Playful Parenting program is under component 3 of the World Bank project, which is part of the component 3 of the Nafa program as a sub-component funded by the World Bank to the tune of US$40,500,000.
The project is designed to expand and enhance social safety nets to improve the incomes and productivity of the poor and vulnerable.
The Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP) helps to support human capital development and prepare countries to reap the demographic dividend by providing a basic level of income and assistance to vulnerable households, including the youth, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
At the orientation held in Sibanor, officials of the National Nutrition Agency outlined that facilitators identified will be trained on the modules and skills to make local toys, where each mentor will mentor and coach approximately 8-10 facilitators, after which a regional team is assigned to supervise, mentor and coach while those at the Central level will offer monitoring, mentoring and coaching.
The criteria set include facilitators to be a resident of the community, be a literate or should have completed at least Grade 9, willing to volunteer and confirm his/her availability for a year, be responsible and respected by the community, to be between the ages of 18 to 45 and be able to speak the language spoken in the community.
Further, the project is a twelve- month project which is targeting 225 communities in all the 6 Districts in the country.
NaNA officials remain optimistic that at the end of the program, households enrolled into the program will stay in the program for 12 months, saying the PPP program aims to start in the first-quarter of 2025 and the second phase will start 6 months after the rollout of the first phase.
In addition, the PPP Project will cover children between zero and 3 years within the six districts of the assessed beneficiaries of the Nafa programs which totaled 22,378 individuals. Focusing on the beneficiaries of the Nafa program, the PPP program is also open to any household within the project districts to be part of the sessions.
In an interview, Malang N. Fofana, executive director of the National Nutrition Agency revealed that the two identified facilitators from each community will be trained to have sessions with mothers on the modules that NaNA has developed for the Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC).
That, he believed, would help mothers to understand the desirable behaviors and practices needed to engage with their children so as to improve their growth and development.
