The participants were nurses, representatives and advisors of Mahalla Committees and members of ELS project initiative groups in the communities. After the training the participants were asked to transfer their knowledge to other community members.

At the time of the training the ELS invited the Social Centre Sharh va Tavsiya to carry out a baseline survey to assess people’s knowledge, practices and attitudes towards child care in the five mahallas. The survey covered 90 randomly selected households with a total of 155 respondents. Topics included: safe motherhood, child illnesses, vaccinations, breastfeeding, iodine deficit, sanitation and hygiene, games, caretaking, TV programmes, pre-school institutions, skills, child labor, and sources of information.

The results of an assessment by Sharh va Tavsiya later during the year showed an improvement in the level of people awareness of child care and the key role that women play in promoting family education. One interesting finding was that mother-in-laws are the main source of information on child care-practices and play a key role in the family’s wellbeing.

The survey concluded that the ELS project interventions in family education were particularly successful because they had been conducted close where people live and together with the staff of the health centers. The communities thought UNICEF and ELS collaboration should continue and expand. The ELS project team felt that the methodology of the survey and the training can be strengthened by expanding the number of household surveyed and allowing in future for more time between surveys. Also, more communities should be involved, for example those who worked with the ELS project to improve people’ access to water and sanitation.

For more information on UNICEF activities in Uzbekistan, visit: www.unicef.org/uzbekistan