2019-2025

Keeping students healthy

2019-2025

Healthy learners

Healthy Learners is committed to improving the health of children over five years old through a school-based community health programme. It trains teachers as community health workers and links schools with the healthcare system. Working in Zambia, Healthy Learners has trained over 800 school health teachers. These teachers currently serve 250,000 primary school students in Lusaka and the Copperbelt provinces. The organisation aims to scale nationally, serving over 1 million students in the country by 2025 and making Zambia a model of how governments throughout the region can improve the health of school-age children.

www.healthylearners.org

CHALLENGE

In Zambia 40% of school-age children suffer from preventable and treatable diseases like malaria, respiratory infections, worm infestations or diarrhoea. These conditions impact their physical, cognitive and emotional development, resulting in poor educational performance, school absenteeism and early dropout.

ACTION

Healthy Learners trains and equips teachers to become school health workers. These teachers monitor students’ health, assess children who are unwell, treat mild conditions and refer children with more serious issues, as well as girls in need of sexual and reproductive care, to health facilities. This ensures that sick children are identified and treated quickly, reducing the duration of their absence from school.

Healthy Learners also works with school administrators and local government to establish health rooms at schools, where students who are not feeling well can be assessed by school health workers.

Healthy Learners is working with the Zambian government’s Ministries of Health and Education to scale this model as a national school health programme.

IMPACT

The Healthy Learners programme has shown to have a significant impact on children’s health. It achieves this by improving students’ knowledge of health topics and their access to and utilisation of healthcare, ultimately reducing the burden of disease.