Parenting Programme Supported in East Timor by Rain Barrel Communications
We are proud of Rain Barrel team members Ami Sengupta and Andrew Carlson for their important role in the research and design of a holistic parenting education and support programme in East Timor (Timor Leste). With local NGO Ba Futuru taking the lead, and in partnership with the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the programme promotes a Communication for Development (C4D) approach and aims to empower and generate behaviour change amongst parents and caregivers to support improved developmental outcomes for disadvantaged children and youth in Timor-Leste.
The programme was developed as a result of combining analysis of the situation in Timor-Leste, including the cultural context, and Government goals, findings from a knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) study and international best practices in C4D and parenting. The proposed design and supporting communication material was pre-tested and piloted in two municipalities. The programme is supported by a robust M&E framework to ensure changes in parenting practices can be monitored, measured and attributed to the programme intervention.
The design and piloting of the programme took place from June 2015 to May 2016. A KAP study was conducted in four municipalities and included quantitative and qualitative components. A total of 995 surveys, 44 individual in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) were carried out. The findings of the KAP survey informed the design of the parenting programme, including the parenting education sessions, the supporting IEC materials, suggested communication activities and the follow-up support framework.
The communication materials included a flipchart covering 10 key messages to support the community sessions, posters, a booklet and a youth theatre guide with four scripts covering the 10 key messages. An implementation manual and a follow-up support guide were also developed along with training materials for the Training of Trainers (TOT) and induction trainings.
Vision and Rationale
The Situation Analysis of Children in Timor-Leste (2014) highlighted several challenges faced by children. These include undernourishment; low preschool enrolment and school retention; high prevalence of violence against children; teenage pregnancy and child marriage, and widespread exposure to alcohol and substance abuse. A key aspect of improving developmental outcomes for vulnerable children and adolescents, especially in relation to early childhood development, is engaging with parents and other caregivers who are primarily responsible for their growth and personal development.[1] This is critical in Timor-Leste, where the average woman bears five or more children[2] and close to 43 per cent of the population is younger than 15 years old.[3]
Britto and Engle’s (2013) comprehensive review states: “…the multi-disciplinary and international literature on parenting clearly indicates that parents are one of the most influential factors in children’s development.” However, parents and caregivers of high-risk families in Timor-Leste face a myriad of challenges. They need better understanding of early childhood development and their critical role during this phase of life; reinforcement of positive practices they already use; and information and skills to support new behaviours to meet the holistic needs of their children. The 10 key focus areas identified were the following:
General Parenting: Every child needs unconditional love, verbal and physical affection, emotional security and sensitivity to his or her needs and feelings.
Early Stimulation: Interact with your child in utero and from the time they are born, through games and play, songs, rhymes, stories and reading.
Child Protection: Ensure children are cared for and supervised by an adult or a child older than 10 years old and protect your child from physical violence and all forms of abuse.
Alternative Discipline: Use positive discipline approaches with your child to resolve conflict or redirect misbehaviour.
Nutrition: Feed your young child (from 6 -23 months) daily nutritious foods such as egg, liver, chicken, meat, mung bean or kidney beans.
Hygiene: Wash your hands with soap and water at important times, such as before eating, before feeding young children, before cooking, after using the toilet, after cleaning baby’s bottom and after touching dirty things. Stop defecating in the open.
Birth Registration: Register your child immediately after birth.
Danger Signs and Care Seeking: Take your child immediately to a health facility if they are showing signs of serious illness.
Education for All: Send your child to school from an early age, keep involved in your child’s learning and provide support with their homework.
Youth Issues: Talk to your adolescent children about issues related to bodily changes and sex and sexuality in order to prepare them for the future.
Approach
Building on international best practice that demonstrates that new knowledge is better processed through dialogue, or two-way communication, and that key messages are best delivered through multiple channels, the Parenting Programme is conceived as a holistic, integrated and nationally-delivered programme working at three levels. Messages will be reinforced by a communication campaign at the national level, parenting education sessions at the community level, and follow-up home visits and peer-to-peer support interventions at the family or household level.
The Parenting Programme approach combines delivery of new information and skills with generating dialogue to enable community-based problem solving and community-led, local solutions. This approach aims to enable parents to: a) understand their critical role in their children’s development; b) build on the things they currently do that enhance this development; c) learn new information and skills; d) practice new approaches with community outreach workers; e) solve common parenting problems and create locally relevant solutions, and f) be supported in adopting new techniques and behaviours that will improve developmental outcomes for children.
This is a multi-disciplinary approach where specialists from various areas (i.e., health, education, protection, WASH, nutrition and agriculture) work together at the community level on the same key messaging, with reinforcement by a local-to-mid-level communication campaign and follow-up support via existing aldeia (community) level networks. A ‘Family Support Team’ at the suco (village) level supports all 10 key behaviour impact messages that show the importance and inter-relatedness of all sectors in achieving improved development outcomes for the most disadvantaged children in Timor-Leste.
The programme design incorporates scalability and national-level roll out as part of long-term implementation planning. However, it can easily be piloted in one or two municipalities for evaluation and adjustment of the design prior to scaling up.The proposed approach, driven by C4D principles and best practices, provides parents and caregivers with new information and skills through quarterly parenting education sessions at community level, which also provides a platform for parents to discuss and find local solutions to problems. These sessions are led by a team comprised of respected community workers. Each team decides how to deliver each message and organize the parenting education sessions once every three months. They also determine the best ways to promote the key messages through various channels in their community, such as the local health post, preschool and other education facilities, faith-based activities and any private groups (e.g., led by local non-governmental organizations [NGOs], international non-governmental organizations [INGOs] and development partners). A national to mid and local-level media communication campaign will reinforce messaging through a weekly radio show, listening groups, guided theatre for young people, billboards, posters and word-of-mouth communication.
Under the proposed design, the programme would utilise existing government structures for coordination, implementation and monitoring of activities. Government partners would include the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice as well as the Secretariat of State for Youth and Sports and the Secretariat of State for Communications. It would engage the country’s administrative hierarchy with five levels — National, Municipal, Administrative Post, Suco and Aldeia.
Pilot
The pilot activities were carried out in Ermera, a coffee growing municipality not far from Dili, the capital, and Viquque, a remote mountainous rice growing municipality. UNICEF and Ba Futuru visited the pilot sites for on-the-ground coordination and consultations with local stakeholders. The purpose of the pilot training activities was to train suco-level leaders to effectively conduct parenting education sessions. The pilot included a three-tiered training structure, comprising a Training of Trainers at the municipal level by Ba Futuru, two induction trainings at the suco level for the family support team members and over 10 parenting education sessions in communities. Parents participating in the sessions were beneficiaries of the government’s Bolsa da Mae conditional cash transfer programme for low income families. Village chiefs (Xefi Suco) were tasked to share information about the programme and upcoming pilot as well as identify Family Support Team members to attend the induction training and then conduct the parenting education sessions.
Overall, the community level sessions were well received and community members were enthusiastic about attending the sessions and receiving new information. The creative content, produced in Tetun, including youth theatre scripts, flipcharts and posters, were particularly appreciated for their warm, colourful and positive portrayal of parenting practices.
Feedback from the Railaco Leten community leader Cristalina Quintão, 40, who participated in one of the parenting education sessions sums up the overall reaction of participants: “As a community leader of the suco, I appreciate the information with the theme Strengthening Families. It has information that is incredibly wonderful about how parents can work together to look after the development of their children, and how parents can work hard to take care of their children’s daily needs, not only with money or things, but love is what is really important.”
Topics such as ‘the role of fathers in a child’s life’ were of particular interest. As one Ba Futuru advanced facilitator who was observing community sessions in Ermera noted: “Fathering and the fathering-related topics, this was something new for them. They know fathers are important but they didn’t know practical ways that fathers could get more involved. They thought that fathers holding a baby was just something enjoyable, but in the end they learned that fathers holding babies was also connected to child development.” “
It was also observed that there were good lines of coordination between MSS and community leaders and members. Suggestions were also made to further improve the programme design, to be incorporated during the project’s implementation phase. An implementation manual and a follow-up support guide, along with the IEC package, training materials for the TOT and induction trainings, will be used by government and UNICEF for the programme’s roll-out and scaling up.
Ba Futuru (meaning “for the future”) is a national NGO based in Timor-Leste founded in 2004 that protects children, reduces violence, empowers women and inspires young learners.
Rain Barrel Communications is an international consulting firm based in New York.
Warmest thanks to Emily Stallman of Ba Futuru and RBC Associate Ami Sengupta for preparing this summary
[1] Britto, P.R., & Engle, P. (2013, unpublished). Parenting education and support: Maximizing the most critical enabling environment. New York: UNICEF.
[2] “Fertility Rate; Total Births per Woman in Timor-Leste (2012). “http://www.tradingeconomics.com/timor-leste/fertility-rate-total-births-per-woman-wb-data.html [4 April 2013].
[3] United Nations Development Programme 2011, Timor-Leste Human Development Report 2011: Managing Natural Resources for Human Development.