AHI: What's New















	Action Health Inc. 17 Lawal Street Jibowu, Lagos Tel. 01 774 3745 Fax. 01 342 5496

Ford Foundation Officials Understudy the Implementation of Family Life HIV Education

Action Health Incorporated (AHI), between June 2-3, 2008 played host to a team from the Ford Foundation.

The visit of the team, comprising Dr. Babatunde Ahonsi, Ford Foundation, West Africa; Dorinda Welle, Ford Foundation, New York, U.S.A and Ms. Oluyemise Akin-Adeniyi, Ford Foundation, West Africa, not only provided an opportunity for the delegation to familiarize themselves with the organization's work , it also was an avenue to interact with key persons involved in the management of the curriculum implementation process, as well as to appraise the successes and challenges being faced in the implementation of Family Life HIV Education (FLHE) in Lagos State, Nigeria.

A round- table conference was later organized which had in attendance Lagos State Ministry of Education (LSMOE) officials including a State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) representative; School Principal, Master Trainers, AHI representatives led by the Executive Director, Mrs. Nike Esiet and other young people.

Various presentations bordering on AHI's work, programming strategies, advocacy initiatives towards integrating and implementing FLHE curriculum at both the state and national levels, background information on implementation of the National FLHE Curriculum in Lagos State including core activities like planning, human resources development, FLHE classroom delivery, e-FLHE as an on-going pilot project, FLHE evaluation and evaluation findings, lessons learnt and challenges, pre service training on FLHE as well as opportunities for the future were made during the "road show".

The event featured experience sharing by Master Trainers on some of the challenges faced in the course of the implementation of the Curriculum, question and answer sessions as well as suggestions on how to overcome some of the challenges.

The train later moved to Morocco Comprehensive Junior High School, Igbobi, Yaba where it was received by the School Principal, Mr. Tunji Adeyiola, who led the group to the one of the classes to observe A carrier teacher facilitate a session on "Family". Different facilitation styles such as songs, brainstorming and group exercises were adopted during the sessions. The team later expressed their gratitude to students; teachers and the Principal of the school for the warm reception accorded them.

Highpoint of the visit was the meeting with the officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Education (LSMOE) held at the Conference Room of the Deputy Governor's Complex, Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. In attendance were Directors from the Ministry; Special Adviser to the Deputy Governor/Hon. Commissioner for Education, Mrs Ronke Azeez; Director, Basic Education, Mrs Olaogun; HIV/AIDS Programme Coordinator, Mrs. E.A Adejuwon; Director, Inspectorate, Mrs. Osuntuyi; Director. Co-Curricula, Mrs. Akinyeye; Director. PESP, Mrs. Amuson; Acting PS/Director, Finance and Admin, Mrs. Joko Ogundimu as well as Deputy Governor's media crew and officers from the Department of Private Education and Special Programmes.

In her submission, Ms. Dorinda Welle thanked the Ministry of Education and AHI for giving her the opportunity to learn from the Lagos State model. She emphasized the need to start FLHE early so as to impact positively on the adolescents and health of the community as a whole. She called for more capacity building programmes for teachers on the new teaching methodologies.

Responding, the Special Adviser to the Commissioner, Mrs. Azeez listed the need to improve the economy, to make the society a better place and job creation for the unemployed youths as key drivers for the implementation of FLHE in the state. She called for the strengthening of partnership among stakeholders in order to scale-up the implementation of the curriculum in other tiers of the school system and promised on behalf of the Ministry to address areas where the model is yet to yield positive results.

Finally, Dr. Uwem Esiet, in his vote of thanks, used the medium to remind the Ministry of the lessons learnt in the implementation process; the need for the Ministry to keep the programme in their heart and to consider scaling-up into senior secondary schools in the state.