Care Criteria This criteria serves to differentiate Care Groups from other women’s groups or peer education methodologies, and to ensure the essential ‘ingredients’ for the successful implementation of the Care Group model are clearly outlined. The following table lists the 13 essential Care Group criteria, and provides a rationale for each. Care Group Criteria Criteria for Care Groups Rationale 1. The model is based on health promotion (mother-to-mother for maternal and child health and nutrition behaviors). Care Group Volunteers should be chosen by the mothers within the group of households that they will serve or by the leadership in the village. Care Groups are not the same as Mothers Clubs where mothers are simply educated in a group. An essential element is having women serve as role models and to promote adoption of new practices by their neighbors. There is evidence that “block leaders” (like Care Group Volunteers) can be more effective in promoting adoption of behaviors among their neighbors than others who do not know them as well. Care Group Volunteers who are chosen by their neighbors (or by a consensus of the full complement of community leaders) will be the most dedicated to their jobs, and we believe they will be more effective in their communication, trusted by the people they serve, and most willing to serve others with little compensation. 2. The workload of Care Group Volunteers is limited: no more In the Care Group model, the number of households per Care Group Volunteer is kept low so that it fits better with
Number Mother's Name Pregnant (Yes/No) Household has a child under 2? (Yes/No) Community Area Temporary # Elected Care Volunteer 1 Leena Samuel Yes No Kivo 1 2 Niragira Regine No Yes Kivo 1 3 Nicole Nduwayo No Yes Kivo 1 4 Nzoyisenga Claudine Yes No Kivo 2 5 Alice Nzomukunda No Yes Kivo 2 A Selection of Care Volunteers Once the neighbor groups have been formed based on their geographic proximity, gather the neighbor women together to select the Care Group Volunteer. Review the job description of a Care Group Volunteer (see box) with the women, and ask them to elect a Care Group Volunteer from among the group. At minimum, a Care Group Volunteer must be willing to work as a volunteer and have a desire to serve her neighbors and be willing to adopt the behaviors promoted by the project and model positive health and nutrition practices. Projects may choose to include other criteria for selecting Care Group Volunteers, such as basic literacy or being a respected member of the community. Once the Care Group Volunteer is selected, place a check mark next to the mother’s name on the village beneficiary household listing, as shown in the Community Census List example above. An Alternative Approach to Identifying Beneficiary Households and Electing Care Volunteers If community participation is high, community leaders may call all pregnant and lactating women and mothers of young children to a central meeting place on a particular day. If a woman is ill or cannot attend, she could appoint someone to represent her (and to take her prenatal visit card or child’s health card to the community gathering). Women could be asked to group themselves first into neighborhoods, then into smaller neighbor groups, and elect their Care Group Volunteer from this self-organization.