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AFRICA A.H.E.A.D Association
AFRICA Applied Health Education and Development Association
October 02, 2006

AFRICA AHEAD is a registered Association formed to disseminate and scale up a cost-effective and proven hygiene behaviour-change strategy using Community Health Clubs as a vehicle for sustainable development. We partner with local NGOs and Government Departments to provide the following support as may be required:

• Analysis of local preventative health training materials
• Adaptation and development of culture specific visual aids
• Training of Trainers for effective implementation
• Participatory adaptation of the A.H.E.A.D Approach
• Development of Concept Notes and Project Proposals
• Feasibility Studies to select appropriate areas
• Liaison with Development Partners for financial assistance
• Design of Base-line and post intervention surveys
• Analysis of data and research reports
• Regular monitoring and progress reports
• Mentoring for implementing agency
• Evaluation and final reports
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Health-benefit analysis
• Advocacy through research and co-publications

Mrs. Toriro’s story: one of 20,000 health club women in Zimbabwe
I am Amai Toriro. This is the story of how my life changed when I became a health club member. In 1995, I was dumped by my husband. He left me with 7 children and went to the city. He had another wife but after six years she died of AIDS and he came back to his rural home for me to look after him. He was surprised to see how I had changed, and all the improvements at home.

At first I was in difficult times until I joined the health club and we were taught how to self realize. We called our club ‘Rujeko’ meaning Light! I attended the health sessions every week for six months and learnt about so many things. It gave me light to understand how to prevent diarrhoea, bilharzia, malaria, skin diseases, worms, even HIV/AIDS but most of all how to care for our family with good hygiene. I completed all 20 health lessons and graduated with my certificate in 1996. The next year my children and I dug a pit latrine and our own deep well. Later I put in a hand pump on the well from the money I earned. I became the Chairperson for our club in 1998.

In our meetings we learned how to improve our way of living and we applied this knowledge. We were given homework every week. I built a pot rack for drying the plates off the ground. I dug a rubbish pit, and kept my yard clean. My kitchen is so beautiful, with homemade clay shelves and everything laid out well. My water is covered properly and we take drinking water carefully with a ladle. We know unsafe water, dirty food, and dirty hands cause diarrhoea. Our children are no longer sick due to poor hygiene.

In 1999, ZimAhead trained every club member with a skill to enable us to make money for ourselves. We learnt how to sew mosquito nets, and others learnt how to press oil to make soap. In our areas over 100 people joined a paper-making project.

Many members now keep bees but all have nutrition and herb gardens. We must plant wood lots if we keep bees. I started with a mud hut, but I made bricks and built a four-bedroom house, roofed with asbestos. I now have drip irrigation and a large nutrition garden. Now I am earning as much as an office worker from selling vegetables, herbs and honey. My husband left me with nothing; when he came back six years later our home had changed.

Something very important to me as a woman is caring for the home and the children. I myself paid for their school fees up to ‘O’ level. I even told them if you want something like a better life you must have skills. So my children joined the clubs, even all my friends. I am happy and I just feel free, and pleased with every activity. I am self-reliant now because I have knowledge and skill to live well.

Our health club always assists those who have problems in the village. We also know how to cure opportunistic infections suffered by people living with AIDS. I am now a District Nutrition Trainer for ZimAHEAD. I train the carers how to handle the clients and care for the sick. I have over 70 varieties of herbs in my garden, and I know all the names, and how to use them. I help families to organize their lives when someone dies. We help each other with funerals through a revolving loan. When there are funerals in the village, those in the health clubs always cook as we now how to be hygienic and prevent cholera and diarrhoea. As health club members we often support those orphans without parents and the widows without food with our own produce, and with clothes.

Our health training stopped five years ago but we continue to meet every week to plan our projects. We play netball; we remind ourselves of good practice and have competitions for the best home. In our ward there are 20 health clubs just like Rujeko with over 100 members in each. In Makoni District there are over 200 health clubs with about 20,000 members. There are many women like me with smart, clean homes and healthy children who will survive and be strong.

Community Health Clubs in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe AHEAD (the mother organization of Africa AHEAD) was founded over ten years ago to scale up the approach now recognized as one of the most cost-effective health promotion strategies in Africa. Over the past decade, the Community Health Club approach has expanded into a 4-Phase process of development, with

1. Health Promotion as an entry point, leading on to
2. Water and Sanitation projects, followed by
3. Sustainable Livelihoods and
4. Social Responsibility (HIV/AIDS)

Health Clubs have fostered self-reliance for thousands of families, especially during current socio-economic turmoil.

1992-96: Development of PHAST training material and trials in 30 health clubs with 2,846 members
1997-98: Scaling up to 10 wards with 175 health clubs with 6,561 members trained in 20 Health Topics
1999-2001: Major programme in 5 districts in 350 clubs;

• 17,282 members trained in health promotion
• 103,000 family members with improved hygiene
• 150 boreholes rehabilitated in 2 districts
• 3,800 VIP latrines constructed in 18 months
• 518 groups raised US$44,304 p.a. through sales
• +100 employed in paper making project with
• Construction of a Community Training Centre

2002-2003: Makoni District

• 200 CHCs secured Gov. loans for IG initiatives
• 20 Literacy Trainers ran classes in 10 wards
• Home based Care trainers in every health club
• Over 3,000 PLWAs registered with Carers
• 4,005 individual & 131 communal nutrition gardens
• 821 trained in use of medicinal herbs
• 4,000 families earning from sale of veg and herbs
• 1,365 trained in bee keeping
• 195 selling honey after six months
• 195 trained in business skills

Achievements by Community Health Clubs

2004-2006: Makoni District, Zimbabwe

• 195 active health clubs with 17,475 families
• Exceptionally high levels of behaviour change
• Improved home hygiene & model kitchens
• 18 new health clubs started in 2005
• 1,300 new health promotion graduates
• Health clubs support 13,237 orphans
• Community assistance to 6,052 widows
• 650 voluntary home-based carers
• 5,475 registered PLWAs
• 1,762 treated with herbal remedies
• 465 PLWAs with drip-fed nutrition gardens
• 289 PLWAs selling honey
• 1 million tree seedlings in 34 wood lots
• 3,146 bee keepers (289 PLWAs)
• 3,495 kgs honey sold
• 54 Watsan committees trained
• 202 Water Point committees trained
• 168 pump caretakers trained
• Complete construction of Training Centre

Research at London School of Hygiene shows the Community Health Club strategy is one of the most effective health promotion programmes in Africa.

• 94% faecal free environment
• 88% correct hand-washing method
• 76% increased use of own cup/plate at meals
• 65% increased use of ladle for taking water
• 41% more nutrition gardens
• 39% more homes have a rubbish pit
• 39% more homes have a clean latrine
• 24% more homes have well swept yards
• 19% more use of soap for hand-washing

Visit the Zimbabwe AHEAD fact sheet

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