|Basic Science and Health Education for Primary Schools Uganda (UNICEF, 1992, 162 p.)|
|Introduction to Book|
Child-to-Child is an approach to Health Education and Primary Health Care spread by a worldwide network of health and education workers in over sixty countries.
Primary Health Care seeks to involve communities in making decisions and taking action to improve their own health. The Child-to-Child approach involves children in this task in three ways:
a) Through helping to care for their younger brothers and sisters and other young children in their family group.
b) Through assisting children in their own age group including those who have not gone to school.
c) Through working together to spread health ideas and improve health practices in school, home and community.
Child-to-Child started in 1979 in London, as you have read above. Over sixty countries of the world are using the approach in different ways.
In Uganda, Child-to-Child is a voluntary programme which spreads by a network of interested teachers, parents, pupils and health workers. Over 90 schools are using the approach in their daily teaching, outside the classroom and in communities.
How Child-to-Child works:
A felt need is identified in the school or community. This need could be a health problem.
d) Discuss the problem with the children
- find solutions to the problem
- take action collectively.
- then evaluate the out come.
In so doing children realise their importance in society and the role they can play. "CHILD POWER".
In schools a committee of teachers,/pupil leaders and sometimes parents is formed. Their role is to identify health problems in the school and the surrounding community. They then group children in the school according to age and ability, e.g. P1 & P7, P2 & P6, P3 & P5. P4 remains a neutral class.
Further more individual pairs are also made in the same groups. The task is then divided according to these groups.
With encouragement and prizes awarded to these children, the problem will be solved and a loving and friendly atmosphere will prevail among them.
Child-to-Child motivates children to discover to solve problems and to be self reliant which is very essential in our lives today.
There is a lot of information on Child-to-Child available at the Institute of teacher Education, Kyambogo and the Institute of Education London University in form of
a) Activity sheets
b) Story books
c) Text books