The Champion programme is off to a great start! It is a health education course that runs every year to empower community members to be the voice of good health and nutrition in the slums.

This year we have 18 mamas throughout our communities that have shown their passion for health education and prevention – we call them our ‘Champions’. Over the past couple of months they have been meeting every Friday afternoon at our Dream Centre in Kinawataka. They have already completed their training on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (often called WASH), which we have established as the pillar for good health, and they are now advocates for change in their own communities.

The mamas are divided into two groups, each learning more specifically about Health or Nutrition so that they can specialise – and don’t get swamped with work! We have six very keen Nutrition Champions who are currently learning at our Dream Centre every other Friday. These mamas are also joining Nutrition Mini Groups each week to help with assessing children and they’ll follow up with the families at home for more relationship based work. The other twelve have been established as our ‘Health Champions’, who are being trained on the kind of health issues we often see in the slums: malaria; diarrhoea; pneumonia and AIDS. They will be the advocates in their own communities to assess people, give some basic education and advice, and refer when things are more complicated.

These mamas have shown their eagerness to learn and ability to serve their communities in great ways already. We have been enjoying building relationships with each one of them and seeing Jesus work in their lives as we meet them on a weekly basis. They are truly going to have a great impact on their communities and it’s so exciting to have a part in educating and enabling them to do so! We also have plans to expand and include the training of Social Champions, capable of dealing with relational issues, child welfare and supporting our Social Development team. Watch this space!