Igniting positive change for children
How UNICEF-supported strategies help families and communities make better decisions.
Fatima, a 47-year-old community volunteer in western Afghanistan, recalls a time when it was common to give birth at home. All her seven children were born at home, with just her neighbors - older women from her village - assisting.
“When we got sick, we went to a traditional healer. There was no protection from deadly diseases like polio and pneumonia. Today things have changed, there are clinics that we can go to and vaccines to protect our children from these diseases,” explains Fatima.
Fatima is a member of a UNICEF-supported Family Health Action Group and she runs regular sessions with mothers about the services that they can access to keep their children safe, healthy and happy. She teaches them why it is important to get regular checkups when pregnant, about breastfeeding, good hygiene and encourages them to send their children to school.
Fatima’s work covers 10 villages and she believes this is important work. “I enjoy educating people in my community to help them to replace old habits with positive behaviours. We can save many lives by giving people the right information when they need it,” says Fatima.
From knowledge to practice
But sometimes even when information and services are available, children and their families may not benefit from services meant to help them because of hidden barriers to access.
For instance, parents may decide against immunizing their child, force their daughter into early marriage or keep her out of school despite knowing the consequences of these actions. Parents do so, not out of ill will or lack of information, but because their decision is influenced by deeply rooted power imbalances and ideologies that fuel harmful practices.
“Changing knowledge is not enough to change behaviours. We partner with families and community leaders to understand their needs and motivations, identify their strengths, and remove barriers to positive change,” says Ibrahim Elsheikh who heads UNICEF’s Social and Behaviour Change Programme in Afghanistan.
Across Afghanistan, UNICEF works with community leaders, faith-based organisations, youth networks and grandmother groups to change attitudes and behaviours that affect children’s wellbeing. With support from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, Japan, Republic of Korea, EU, GAVI, Global Nutrition and Global Thematic Fund and other partners, UNICEF trains these groups and provides resources to facilitate dissemination of life-saving messages and feedback collection.
Aisha, a member of a grandmother group in western Afghanistan, was forced into marriage when she was just 11 years old. Her husband was a much older man with three other wives already. Aisha had her first baby when she was 13 years old and remembers struggling with motherhood and marriage at that young age. Today she goes around the community having these difficult but important conversations about the dangers of child marriage with her peers, community elders and parents.
A slow but sure wave of change
At first, some men did not allow their wives to attend the sessions that grandmothers run in the community. But when the Grandmother Groups started to go home to home, men understood that these sessions and the information that grandmothers are providing is good for their children and their families. So now the women freely attend the sessions organized by Aisha and the 44 other grandmothers in her group.
A popular topic in the Grandmother Group sessions has been the way mothers-in-law treat daughters-in-law. Fifty-year-old grandmother Aziza says she does not want to repeat the mistakes of her mother-in-law.
“Relationships with mothers-in-law were strained in the past. You could not eat without your mother in-law’s permission. But today I even cook for my brom (daughter-in-law). I go to the market and buy fruits for her, and we have a loving, respectful relationship which is good for her children, my grandchildren,” explains Aziza.
Facilitating two-way communication
Kobra, a mother of three, struggled to breastfeed her now 3-year-old daughter Honia who suffered from malnutrition when she was just 7 months old. Kobra is expecting her fourth child and feels more prepared this time around. She attends sessions at a UNICEF-supported centre where she has learnt some breastfeeding tips as well as what supplementary food to give babies who are six months and older.
At the centre Kobra also provides feedback on the availability and quality of services in her area. Twenty-six volunteers work at the centre, recording and processing feedback and complaints which are submitted to UNICEF every month. The volunteers have been trained to rank and classify complaints and to engage the community.
Some complaints are easily resolved by the network of UNICEF-supported volunteers and community health workers in the community. For instance, if parents are concerned about getting their children vaccinated due to prevailing misconceptions, volunteers under the UNICEF-supported Family Health Action Groups organize awareness sessions to provide more information about the vaccines and how they work to protect children from diseases.
Complaints and feedback related to supplies and services such as requests for more schools, hospitals, medicines, or improvements in water supply are submitted to UNICEF where they are further classified and escalated to relevant partners and authorities for action.
For example, in collaboration with partners, UNICEF recently prevented the forced marriage of a 16-year-old girl whose parents were struggling financially. The family was subsequently enrolled in a cash assistance programme to help them meet their basic needs. A new community-based education centre was established following community feedback about schools being too far for young children to access.
Across Afghanistan there are over 122 UNICEF-supported community engagement and feedback centres and community engagement through 4,350 trained volunteers from Family Health Action Groups, health and school shuras, community health workers (CHWs) Community Development Councils and teachers. UNICEF has also trained 1,700 Grandmother Groups, 10,000 religious leaders, and more than 5,000 young people. UNICEF uses these strategies and structures to inspire community action and give people control over the decisions that affect their lives and their children’s lives.
