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Communication Strategy for the Prevention of Zika in the Education Sector in Honduras

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The declaration of emergency Zika nationwide on February 1, 2016, (Executive Decree No. PCM-008-2016), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO / WHO), warned of the complications associated with the virus: 

  • Causal relationship between Zika virus, microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
  • Little knowledge of the virus: symptoms, risks, means of infection, and prevention measures.


Therefore, the government of Honduras, in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), decided to develop a communication strategy to change behaviour and social participation based on the leadership and work of teachers in order to transcend the school as message recipients and get the messages into homes.

Communication Strategies
  • Development and dissemination of communication pieces about Zika, linked to the educational curriculum, delivered through training processes for teachers educating parents / mothers of family tutors and / or managers.
  • Development and implementation of an online course on Zika aimed at teachers and students, to expand the number of trained actors.
  • Promotion of knowledge, attitudes and practices and for the prevention of Zika in communities, through processes led by teachers, including parents and students. 

And strategy results:

  1.  Strengthening teachers' capacities through interactive study sessions through the Online Zika Course:
    • 2016-2017: Nine departments prioritized by Zika emergency, 21 municipalities 35,000 teachers with influence on 305,682 students.
    • 2018: Three prioritized departments.
    • More than 1000 teachers in 100 educational centers, with an influence on 40 thousand students 
  2. Integration of the Zika prevention strategy in the curriculum and in School Safety Plans for Comprehensive Risk Management.
  3. Zika prevention operational plans in educational centers according to the diagnosis of skills, knowledge and attitudes.
  4. Educational centres, neighbourhoods and colonies, integrated into participatory learning on the identification of Aedes breeding sites, ways of prevention, and healthy practices.
Development Issues

Zika, risk management, health

Key Points

Lessons on the use of strategies:

  1. The Education strategy for the prevention of Zika must be adapted to the territorial contexts, taking into account factors such as violence and the risk that the educational communities increase the level of activities in the homes.
  2. It is essential to strengthen the links between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health at the national level in order to generate integration between the two sectors and thus strengthen the work and monitoring of prevention in schools.
  3. It is important that the prevention of Zika transcend the classroom and be integrated into extracurricular activities such as recreational routes.
  4. In order to achieve the sustainability of the Zika Prevention Strategy, it is important that teachers at the national level continue to be trained - this can be done by making the online course of Zika compulsory.
Partners

UNICEF, PAHO, OCHA

Sources

Taken from the Communication Strategy Presentation for the Prevention of Zika in the Education Sector in Honduras, held at the event: From Plaras to La Acción - UNICEF - OCHA-OMS.