Bangladesh’s field workers have performed ‘better’ in disseminating their health, nutrition and family planning messages to the people using computer technology, a pilot study reveals.
The pilot study before launching of a project showed that they properly used ‘netbook’ equipped with “eToolkit” and video materials and “successfully” rendered their services.
The workers also train themselves with the software provided in the netbook.
Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) at a dissemination seminar on Tuesday said they had trained at least 300 health and family welfare assistants about how to use the ‘netbook’.
They were monitored and supervised by a separately recruited group, it said.
In Bangladesh, the health assistants and family welfare assistants visit door to door and convey health, nutrition and family planning related messages to the couples.
Using netbook, they could show pictorial messages and videos that people in remote villages could easily understand rather than providing only verbal information.
For instance, the study found exclusive breastfeeding has increased to 96 percent from 81 percent among 600 mothers with children below two years of age.
They pilot study was conducted in remote villages of Sylhet and Chittagong districts where lack of knowledge influence people’s health outcomes.
The BKMI received USAID funds to expand the project until September, 2016.
It said they would continue to expand the use of the digital resources by making them available within the existing government infrastructure, at the community level and at districts.
Health Secretary MM Neazuddin welcomed the initiative and said the government would scale it up as it campaigned for “digital Bangladesh”.
