Kidan’s Worth Advocating, Educating and Reaffirming Oblivious Lived Experiences of the Health Extension Program Package

Abstract

Background: Palpable progress has been achieved in improving quality and access to the basic health services in Tigrai since the start of the Health Extension Program in 2013/14. However, there is limited evidence and/or documentation on the lived experiences of women who fully implemented the packages of the Health Extension Program in Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia.

Objective: Describe lived experiences of a mother from a female headed household which fully implemented the packages of the Health Extension Program in Debrehiwot Tabiya, Hawzien Woreda, Eastern Zone, Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia.

Methods: A case study was purposively selected to get a detailed description of the experiences of the full implementation of the Health Extension Program package in Tigrai. The case study is based on the lived experiences of a mother of four children from one of the female headed households in Megab Tabia, Hawzien Woreda, Eastern Zone, Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia. The mother was purposively selected from the few model farmers with improved livelihood through the full implementation of the Health Extension Program package. Illustrative case study approach intended for critical descriptive of observed instances were used which it basically gives opportunity to generate meaning and thick description of the lived experiences, indigenous knowledge, creativity, philosophical assertions and social interactions of the mother called Weizero Kidan. Interviews with Kidan were audio recorded and transcribed into Tigrigna, the local language and back translated into English. The transcripts were exported to ATLAS7.5.13 software for analysis. Recurring themes were described with accompanying explanatory quotes.

Result: Inherent to Kidan’s view, the implementation of the health extension program package basically requires strong shared responsibility, commitment and determination, working synergistically, open to learn and experiment new things and able to focus on available local resources. More specifically, Kidan appreciates the Health Extension Program activities are opportunities to create the good mix of her innovative idea with indigenous knowledge to produce new things by which such innovation were found to be impactful to improve her family’s livelihood. Gender equality, women empowerment and balancing socio-economic differences and eventually improved rural livelihoods were confirmed impacts of the full implementation of Health Extension Program package.

Conclusion: The innovations, approaches and success stories related to improved livelihoods from Kidan’s lived experiences are testimonies to close links between the full implementation of the Health Extension Program and rural development. Hence, Kidan proved that the HEP can best implement using the local resources, it will be easy to scaling up of Kidan’s lived best experiences to the majority of the rural households. Failure to appreciate the close links between the Health Extension Program and rural development will continue to perpetuate the poor implementation of the package and further widen the health disparities between rural and urban households and eventually linger rural poverty in Tigrai.