Health and Welfare Practices Promotion Group (Cellule pour la Promotion des Pratiques d’Hygiène- CEPPHY)
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Sector : Healthcare
Location : Kinshasa and Lower Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
local Partner : Le Centre Congolais de Culture, de Formation et de Développement (CECFOR) (The Congolese Centre for Culture, Training and Development)
Start of Partnership : 1992 |
Context and Considerations
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s sanitary and hygienic situation has been deteriorating these last years. Developing a public garbage collection system as well as improving the population’s hygiene practices and conditions would considerably diminish the spreading and development of infectious diseases (such as typhoid fever, diarrhea, tuberculosis or malaria), a major cause of death among local young children (5 years or less). Scientific studies have shown that washing one’s hands with soap could reduce the impact of diarrhea and respiratory infections by 47%. However, most of Congo’s health care structures do not comply with these basic hygiene standards.
Solution Proposed
In order to improve Kinshasa’s, Lubumbashi’s and the Lower Congo’s persona and public hygiene practices, IECD is supporting the creation of a Health and Welfare Practices Promotion Group devoted to promoting hygienic practices (Cellule pour la Promotion des Pratiques d’Hygiène - CEPPHY). This project was initiated in January 2008 by the Higher Institute for Nursing Sciences (Institut Supérieur en Sciences Infirmières - ISSI).
The CEPPHY has two complementary goals: improving the hospitals’ as well as the communities’ hygiene habits.
The CEPPHY creates and supports lasting hygiene committees in partner hospitals and trains their staff in respecting certain hygienic standards. In parallel, CEPPHY wants to integrate the hospital’s hygienic norms into the nursing schools’ national manual.
Simultaneously, CEPPHY aims at improving the communities’ hygiene through awareness raising campaigns which sensitize the population to respect some hygienic norms on an individual as well as on a collective level.
Impact and Results
10 hospitals and 10 nursing schools are fulfilling CEPPHY’s second objective, improving the hospitals’ hygienic training. 62.500 citizens in Kinshasa have been made aware of the dangers linked to bad hygienic habits. 5.000 information leaflets have been distributed and an advertisement spot is being broadcasted. The team has also sensitized 1.700 students by organizing meetings in 6 schools. 3 committees have been created in 3 partner hospitals in order to ensure that the hygienic standards are kept and to supervise the nursing staff’s sensitization. 5 nursing schools have integrated these norms into their program.
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