2 Year Development Project Months 1-12

24 Month Development Project Part One: Months 1 - 12
Food Security and Child Health

You have facilitated a participatory needs assessment or have received a grant award and the challenges you need to solve are:
1. An annual shortage of food for the four months preceding the October corn harvest.
2. The chronic ill health of their children complicated by diarrhea and under-nutrition.

The following low-cost, no-cost interventions gleaned from Project Examples and combined into a project, are quick acting and easy for beneficiaries to understand and adopt.

	January. Form a Community Health Committee to participate in analyzing health, hygiene and sanitation needs within the community, to facilitate between project implementers and community residents, and to insure that all social groups participate in health activities.
	February. Kitchen Gardens 1.1: Family Nutrition & Gardens. Learn how even a small garden can increase the quantity of food a family receives, how to choose plants that will provide essential vitamins, proteins and oils, and how harvests can be planned to coincide with months when staples are low.
	March. Kitchen Gardens 1.2: Forming Beds and Planting Seeds. This workshop will help participants have a successful first-year garden, even if small. We will discuss the importance of organic matter in the soil and well-dug beds, and provide and plant seed for nutritious, vitamin A rich, local vegetables.
	April. SODIS Water Treatment System. Will reduce the incidence of diarrhea in children by between 25% and 75%. SODIS improves the microbiological quality of drinking water by using both solar UV-A radiation and temperature to inactivate pathogens causing diarrhea.
	May. Kitchen Gardens 1.3: Care & Maintenance. This workshop will address proper watering, weeding - and fertilizing with locally available manures. We will also discuss garden architecture such as fencing, stakes and plant supports. An introduction to pest management will be covered.
	June. School Health and Hygiene Program. Children can be tremendous agents of change for their families and schools can provide sound reinforcement for positive behavioral change. A parallel school health & hygiene program can improve children's health and reinforce your family health project.
	June. Hand Washing. Reduces diarrhea in children by between 30% and 53%. Hand washing with soap is the number one prevention against the spread of person-to-person infection and reduces the spread of germs that cause diarrhea, respiratory illness, and skin infection.
	July. Kitchen Hygiene & Health. More than half of food related infections are contracted in the home. Food fed to small children may play a more important role than safe drinking water in the transmission of diarrheal diseases. Kitchen hygiene can reduce the contamination of food and the transmission of disease.
	August. Nutrition, Meal Planning & Cooking 1. Children need more than grain for growth and vitality. They also need fats, calories, proteins, vitamins and micronutrients. Particpants learn how to plan and prepare balanced meals that are appetizing, healthy and utilize produce from their new gardens.
	September. Mother and Child Health and Breast Feeding. Reduces the incidence of diarrhea between 20-27% in children 6 months and younger. Reduced breastfeeding rates in developing nations mean that fewer children receive the protective and nutritional benefits of breast milk delivered in a sterile fashion.
	October. Kitchen Gardens 1.4: Composting. Organic matter in garden soil provides nutrients, structure and holds water. Vegetable matter such as leaves, kitchen waste and manure can be placed in a pile for 3-6 months for partial decomposition. This workshop gives us a jump-start on year 2 Kitchen Gardening.
	November. Improved Cook Stoves: Micro Loan Program. Pollutants from open fires cause 1.6 million deaths per year. Children suffering IAP induced illnesses miss school & adults miss work. Improved stoves can reduce wood consumption by 70%, saving time & money & conserving forests. The reduction in pollutants ranges from 66% to 99%.
	December. 12 Month Review. Good development includes follow up on new individual activities for up to one year. This twelve month review will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions and share lessons learned. It is also a chance to get an overview of year two's program.

24 Month Development Project Part Two: Months 13 - 24