Afrigather WHO Namibia with help from the Regional Workplace in Africa skilled 45 faculty employees, nurses, and college board members from colleges within the Oshana area as a part of the SURGE flagship programme. The goal of the coaching was to extend capability of colleges to implement the well being selling faculty initiative and put together higher to reduce impression of well being outbreaks and different public well being occasions on colleges.
Namibia established the College Well being Programme in 1990 with the goal of selling the well being of college going kids and be certain that Namibian learners have optimum situations to develop, develop and study. Since then, faculty well being has been a core part of the nation’s Major Well being Care technique and in 1998 the nation adopted the WHO Well being selling faculty initiative to advertise and strengthen faculty well being. The purpose of this initiative was to supply complete well being providers for all school-going kids together with annual well being screening, provision of secure water and improved sanitation, promotion of wholesome life-style and good vitamin, and making certain secure areas for learners and college personnel. A Nationwide College Well being Coverage was launched in 2008 and a brand new revised coverage is in draft to make sure that all faculty kids in Namibia purchase the information and expertise they should make knowledgeable choices about their well being and wellbeing and to enhance their high quality of life.
The coaching within the Oshana area is the primary in a collection of trainings deliberate for 2023 underneath the WHO AFRO SURGE flagship initiative in Namibia. COVID-19 drew consideration to the deficits in training and well being programs to make sure that learners are shielded from the impression of main public well being occasions and may proceed their training with minimal disruptions. A latest unpublished UNESCO regional report on the Influence of Covid-19 on Adolescents and Younger Individuals’s Sexual and Reproductive Well being and Rights (SRHR) in Eight ESA International locations, highlighted the impression of COVID 19 on learners in relation to entry to important sexual and reproductive well being info, publicity to gender-based violence (GBV), elevated being pregnant, and continuation of colleges. In line with the report, 600,000 learners had been affected by the lockdown. City males reported their high three sources of knowledge on SRH to be their sisters (35.7%), moms (20.1%) adopted by church and neighborhood at 5% every. The outcomes associated to GBV, learner being pregnant and college dropout are alarming:
- 3,625 learners reportedly fell pregnant throughout the COVID-19 lockdown interval in comparison with 1,542 learners in 2019,
- 10,478 GBV instances had been reported submit COVID lockdown in comparison with 5,000 pre- COVID-19
- College dropout charges elevated to a median of 30,665 from 10,000 common per 12 months
Contributors on the workshop shared their experiences referring to making a conducive studying setting, highlighting poor water and sanitation infrastructures in colleges. Additionally they referred to challenges with placement of learners with particular academic wants, alcohol abuse, violence in opposition to kids and learner pregnancies. These experiences will not be distinctive to the Oshana area. The 2021 Multidimensional Poverty Report indicated that 67 % of Namibians wouldn’t have entry to improved sanitation services, and that is extra pronounced in rural communities with near 94 % missing entry to improved sanitation. The International College-based Scholar Well being Survey (2013) discovered 45.4 % of ladies and 47.9 % of boys aged 13-15 been bullied, 58.2% have consumed alcohol, 38.4% expertise bodily violence and 40.2% tried suicide. The introduction of the well being selling faculty initiative offers lecturers and nurses with a method to deal with these challenges and supply systematic sustainable options over a interval. The necessity to prepare the regional faculty well being committees, faculty employees and college boards, and well being care suppliers is crucial to make sure that colleges in most of Namibia embrace the well being selling faculty initiative.
WHO has been working with different UN businesses (UNICEF, UNFPA and UNESCO) to strengthen the implementation of the Built-in College Well being and Security programme and can proceed to help the Ministry of Well being and Social Companies and Ministry of Training, Arts and Tradition to particularly scale-up the implementation of the Well being Selling College Initiative.
