Process Documentation of Health Education Interventions for School Children and Adolescent Girls in Rural India

Objective: To undertake process documentation (PD) of two health education interventions for tribal school children (6-14 years) and adolescent girls (12-19 years) in rural central India. Methods: The present participatory process documentation exercise was undertaken at Kastutba Rural Health Training Center, (KRHTC), Anji, which is a field practice area of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sewagram. The various steps identified for process documentation were decided after reviewing the monthly and annual reports of KRHTC, training reports, published research papers, flipbooks and daily diaries of health educators. In order to get the health educators' perceptions, a free listing and pile sort exercise on the domain of 'perceived advantages of the present approach' was undertaken, followed by a semi-structured Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the educators. A two-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis was completed with the pile sort data to get the collective picture of perceived advantages. Results: The health education interventions were need-based, focusing on a target audience. The approach was community-based and has the potential to stimulate an action-experience-learning cycle of health educators and community members by stimulating their creative potential. The health educators found locally-developed handmade flipbooks with relevant messages and culturally sensitive pictures to be facilitating factors. Conclusions: The present study provided process documentation of two health education interventions which could be useful to both governmental and non-governmental organizations working in resource poor rural settings of developing countries.