School Health

In 2019-2020, we held year-long workshops on Healthy Eating Habits as part of a four-year spectrum of health and hygiene topics. We focused on nutrition and dietary practices in the fifth year. According to research, despite available resources, lack of awareness frequently leads to undernutrition, which jeopardises children’s survival, growth and development, as well as the strength and capacity of a community. As a result, it was deemed appropriate to spread nutrition and balanced diet awareness following our previous programs on drinking water, hand hygiene, and sanitation. School is an important platform, providing an efficient and effective means of reaching many children, as well as their families and community members.

What do we do under SHP?

We at Ekam Foundation Mumbai develop our own Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials, which include a 35-40 minute digital presentation as well as other collaterals such as posters, standees, book labels, badges, and so on. The presentation includes engaging stories centered on central characters to whom children can relate.

To whom do we cater?

The SHP Program serves primary schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and Thane Municipal Corporation. For greater reach, we also run our program in low-income private or public schools. All collaterals are created in-house with the assistance of professional agencies. Every year, the Ekam Foundation Mumbai conducts research on a new topic and finalizes the content. Experts assess content based on the subject matter and child-friendliness. The main message is woven throughout the stories so children can relate to it. The SHP Programme caters to primary schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and Thane Municipal Corporation. For greater reach, we also run our program in low-income private or public schools.

How do we make our program engaging for the students?

1. Our facilitators approach meaningful conversations based on our created presentations with the students and long-term impact through the lens of child-friendly methods.
2. We conduct interactive sessions and deliver animated stories that help us demonstrate the messages well.
3. We hand over a couple of badges with similar hygiene-related messages to the most active and responsive students to encourage participation and create interest.
4. Posters are put up on the school walls for easy recall of the same messages for the children.
5. We create a short animation video of 7 to 10 minutes on the previous year’s message and run it at the end of the session to repeat and reinforce the messages.

Highlights from SHP Programme 2015 to 2020

Highlights of School Health Program

• The SHP Program receives commendable support from many government agencies and the targeted schools. The mutual trust between institutions and the impact of rigorous campaigning has driven the success of the programme.
• Teachers havepraised the sessionsfor being interactive, andenjoyable, andensuring that learningis done in a fun and engaging way. The use of SuperKids in the presentation and theanimated video is especially well-liked by the kids.
• In addition, the giveawaysdone before, during, and after the sessionguarantee active engagement and learning throughout theprogram segment. The School HealthProgram will succeed if the messagesare continually reinforced by carrying out each module of theprogram and thoroughly going over the dos anddon’ts with thekids. Annual Report 2019–20 25.