Community-Based Health Training and Practice Programme

Results achieved as of the end of the project (July 2014) include: (1) a total of 15 pre-service training courses two teacher-training courses and one updating health workers course were offered to 554 students including 364 graduates of which 58% are women; (2) the Massinga Centre now offers five different courses including preventive medicine technician courses (the only one available at the beginning of the project) general nursing general medicine maternal and child health and teaching specialty; (3) 89% of students who completed their course graduated; (4) a dormitory for 144 students two classrooms and two teacher houses were built and officially inaugurated by the Minister of Health in August 2013; (5) the Centre increased its annual enrollment from 60 at the start of the project to 300 at the end; (6) 12 teachers graduated and another 15 were near completion; (7) 551 people (50% of whom were women) participated in the continuing education courses; (8) the number of teachers on staff increased from a baseline of 6 to 12; and (9) partnerships were established with three local communities as practicum sites for learning about community health and development. In particular the communities were involved in improving their environment by constructing improved latrines and reducing stagnant water around their houses. They were also involved in revenue-generating activities such as chicken production and sewing; and organized regular forums to discuss the health of their communities. The Ministry of Health’s annual institutional evaluations of its training centres ranked the Massinga Centre among the top two out of 14 for four years in a row maintaining the centre’s reputation as a model for Mozambique. It plays a lead role in helping the Ministry of Health develop an innovative national teacher training program including a distance-learning curriculum based on the centre’s expertise and its community-based methodology. The Massinga Centre developed