In the context of Ethiopia, optimal healthy growth and development of children is a top priority in addressing various social challenges. It has been evidenced that malnutrition, low developmental and educational outcomes, harmful traditional practices, domestic violence, and early marriage are prevalent among children in the country. At present, COVID-19 is also imposing serious im-plications for children and families. The economic vulnerability of the crisis has increased parental stress, physical and psychological health risks for both children and parents, which increased domestic violence and abuse, child marriage and many other child protection issues. This has been the result of a combination of factors, including lack of knowledge and awareness, social, economic, and emotional stress among both parents and children.
WKW, as a social enterprise, is a key business that can address the aforementioned problems by enhancing and strengthening parenting capacity through implementing a local innovative and tested social and behavioural change (SBC) intervention, Tsehai for parents (TfP). TfP will be part of WKW’s bigger ecosystem called Better Well-being, a set of programs that are tailored to meet the needs of parents of children aged 0-10 (through TfP), children aged 3-10 (through Tsehai Loves Learning), adolescents aged 11-18 (through Tibeb Girls) and youth aged 18-25 (through Youth Investigators).
Within the project period, WKW will use TfP to produce 12 TV and 12 Radio episodes in Amharic language, each running 24 minutes for 1 year, conveying the key messages relevant to the holistic development of children through parental support. WKW will select key messages for each topic and align it with the core priority messages of the Federal Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education by leveraging its long-term synergistic partnership with the ministries. In addition, a Content Advisory Group (CAG) will be formed where key experts will come together to provide technical guidance and review the contents that will be produced. To ensure that the messages are gender and disability inclusive, WKW will also adapt each video in sign language.
