Hi Tara,

Thank you for your motor skill-improving game suggestions! Games and activities like yours that can be done in rural communities with little or no extra or expensive equipment are what we are hoping to bring to our structured play component, so we really appreciate this. Please feel free to send more helpful ideas our way if you think of them.

All the best,
Natasha

Thanks for your comment, Musa! We are definitely grateful that we have experience working in this community and these relationships that we're able to utilize to spread the word about our clinics.

Before each lesson, our community health workers and health educators review the lesson plan and agenda so that parents will know what they will take away from each talk. We envision lectures to last for 1-2 hours, followed by question and answer time, as well as time for discussions and forums.

In terms of a reward system, what kind do you suggest? Would this reward system be for parents who frequently attend lectures, or will it be of some other nature?

Thank you again for your input - we really appreciate it!

Thank you for your suggestion, Dean! The idea of providing mothers and fathers with information prior to birth has been suggested several times before, and we are currently brainstorming ways to do this most effectively.

Presently, we are using our already existing relationships with schools in which we conduct mobile clinics to draw mothers to our mother and under-5 program. For this reason, we are more able to reach mothers who already have children. However, I foresee us able to utilize our relationships with church and community leaders, as well as our growing relationships with parents who we have already provided health education and services to, in order to reach parents-to-be prior to birth.

Our organization also has a youth sexual health and reproduction education program through Planned Parenthood Global that provides family planning information and support to youth members of our community, which is a way we are already trying to provide pre-natal care to our target population.

Thanks again for your suggestion, and please let us know if you have any others! The comments/ideas from the OpenIDEO community have all been very helpful and are always welcome.