Interpersonal Education by Rural Yemeni Women for Promoting Child Survival and Maternal Health

Abstract

This study reports the results of an evaluation of an education and training effort for promoting diarrheal control, nutritional health and general maternal and child health among rural Yemeni women. Eight hundred and five volunteer women and men from twenty Yemeni villages in the governorates of Al Beida and Hajja, were trained to disseminate basic health messages to friends and neighbors in their villages. Evaluators visited four villages that had received the training and two that had not, to determine whether the dissemination had actually occurred. Mothers contacted by their recently-trained neighbors correctly responded to all knowledge and practice questions related to diarrhea control, oral rehydration therapy and breast feeding, whereas mothers in control villages averaged 60 percent correct responses. The results suggest the potential for interpersonal education for improving child survival and maternal health in Yemen.