Mother 2 mother prototype - Hooyo Ku Hooyo SAHAN- HKH- FCDO Sub-Award

SAHAN (the Somali Advocates for Health and Nutrition) is the first-ever, large-scale demand creation programme in the Somali context. It is dedicated to improving healthy behaviours and encouraging uptake of health services among women of reproductive age. This programme is committed to expanding the base of evidence and learning around demand creation in the Somali context. SAHAN is led by PSI and supported by a group of partners, including Mercy-USA. The notion of mothers supporting mothers to improve health and nutrition is intuitively appealing. Mother-to-mother (M2M) Community Demand Creation (CDC) models that apply interpersonal communication are not new in Somalia/Somaliland. They have been implemented by a number of health and nutrition NGOs, including PSI and Save the Children. To address these weaknesses of existing Community Demand Creations, PSI, through the SAHAN project, has redesigned and improved their own existing Community Demand Creation, rapidly tested it, and are now referring to this revised model as Hooyo Ku Hooyo. This programme (Hooyo Ku Hooyo implemented by Mercy-USA) was committed to expanding the base of evidence and learning around demand creation in the Somali context. The goal of the project was to improve health of the targeted communities in taking knowledge to practice for improved maternal and child health status. SAHAN programme key intervention areas included safe pregnancy and facility delivery, benefits of ANC, benefits of PNC, birth spacing, breast feeding, Infant & young child feeding, diarrhea, pneumonia and benefits of Immunization. The project was implemented in Abudwaq and Balanbale districts in Galgaduud region of Galmudug state for a period of one year (June 2019-June 2020). During that period, the activities mainly focused on increased utilization of quality maternal and child health services through community demand creation and improved health behaviours. The project was linked to health facilities, including Amano MCH and Midnimo RHC in Abudwaq and Balanbale HC in Balanbale district. The Female Community Influencers (FCI) were equipped with knowledge and skills to deliver health messages and do referrals to the health centers. They worked in pairs and each pair visited four households on daily basis except weekends.