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School Health and Nutrition (SHN)
Millions of school-age children are affected by serious, yet easily treatable and preventable, illnesses, which inhibit their ability to learn. Save the Children’s School Health and Nutrition (SHN) program is a cost-effective strategy to address a number of the health problems facing school-age children, through health education and health services such as deworming and micronutrient supplementation and healthy environment. Our programs are active in 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These interventions are simple, safe and familiar, and address problems that are widespread and recognized as important within the community, thereby helping children participate in school.
Save the Children works closely with schools and their communities to ensure proper sanitation through building latrines and appropriate hand washing facilities and providing access to safe drinking water. Most importantly, through education, students learn how to adapt their daily habits to improve their health, nutrition, hygiene and prevent HIV and AIDS, gaining these important skills and behaviors for life. Whilst focusing on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and health education through schools, Save the Children’s SHN programs are nevertheless diverse and adapted to local needs - including for example vision and hearing screening, oral health promotion, malaria prevention and treatment, obesity reduction and violence prevention.
SHN interventions have been shown to improve not only children’s health and nutrition, but also their learning potential and life choices both in the short and long-term. SHN interventions particularly benefit poor and disadvantaged children, who have the most to gain both nutritionally and educationally. Also, by focusing on the special needs for girls – for example through Menstrual Health Management (MHM) – our SHN programs are helping reduce barriers to learning for girls and enhance their overall health.
It is now widely recognized that SHN programs are an important instrument in enabling children to benefit from quality education and reach their educational potential. As such, they are recognized as making a significant contribution towards countries’ efforts to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Within Save the Children, the SHN programs work closely with the Education Programs to ensure that children in communities served by Save the Children are well educated and healthy. Similarly, School Health and Nutrition Programs are a good continuation of Early Child Development (ECD) programs. Our School Health and Nutrition Programs are recognized as a global model and are in alignment with the UN and World Bank framework for school health and nutrition called FRESH (Focusing Resources on School Health and Nutrition).
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FRESH School Health and Nutrition (SHN) Webinar: Collective Advocacy for Investment in Menstrual Health and Hygiene for a Gender Equal Future- May 2021
How can we make the case for investment in MHH across sectors to address the breadth of menstrual experiences and related needs? What advocacy opportunities exist in the education sector to scale up MHH as a key component to achieve the SDGs? This session
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State of School Feeding Worldwide 2020
This publication presents an analysis of the state of school feeding in 2020, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on school feeding worldwide. Furthermore, it presents suggestions on actions to restore this global safety net and to build back better.
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Retrospective Impact Evaluation: Save the Children’s Sponsorship Programming in Woliso Impact Area, Ethiopia (2002-2010)
This is the final report of a retrospective impact evaluation conducted of Save the Children’s Sponsorship program in Woliso, Ethiopia (2002-2010). The aim of the evaluation was to: Assess the long-term intended and unintended, both positive and negative,
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School Health Thematic Ladders: Guidance for the well-being and physical protection of school-age children
The School Health Thematic Ladders contain rubrics or milestones for any school, or school district, or an entire project to meet the basic requirement for the wellbeing and physical protection of school-age children. They are based on Save the Children’s
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FRESH School Health and Nutrition (SHN) Webinar: Measuring outcomes for Menstrual Health & Hygiene- May 2020
Why is absenteeism not an easy outcome to measure with menstrual health and hygiene programs? What evidence exists regarding the effects of poor menstrual hygiene and girls’ education? How is Save the Children monitoring MHH programs? Join us to discuss S
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Waliku: Address student absenteeism and well-being through the strategic use of technology
Despite high enrolments in schools, student absenteeism is a problem in low-resource contexts. Average attendance rates tracked by school systems mask the extent of absenteeism at an individual level, which can easily be over 10% of school days or a month
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COVID-19 Response: Making the mid-day meals functional following school re-opening
Midday meals in schools are one of the main food-based safety nets in India, reaching close to 100 million children every day. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential lockdown, schools have been closed across the country. Despite this,
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FRESH School Health and Nutrition Webinar (SNH): The Secret's Out: Tobacco company tactics to target young people and responses for schools- July 2020
What strategies do tobacco companies use to target young people? What can schools do to protect students from tobacco use? How can media and digital media help protect young people? This session discusses how schools can protect young people from manipu
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FRESH School Health and Nutrition (SHN) Webinar: Solutions to Understand and Respond to Barriers of Student Attendance and their Well-being- February 2020
Solutions to Understand and Respond to Barriers of Student Attendance and their Well-being What are the barriers to student attendance? What tools and methods can be used to monitor and measure student attendance in a meaningful way? What role can the sc
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Re-Imagining School Feeding: A high-return investment in human capital and local economies
Investments should be done throughout a child's life- from early age to adulthood- for each to achieve full potential. Evidence show that health and education are two sides of the same coin, and investment in one requires simultaneous investment in the ot
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Mitigating the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food and Nutrition of Schoolchildren
While cases of COVID-19 appear to be fewer among children (and symptoms generally milder), national responses to the pandemic can have important consequences for child nutrition and educational outcomes, especially in lieu of school closures. This joint n
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FRESH School Health and Nutrition (SHN) Webinar: Keeping Education Running through Group Handwashing in Schools- March 2020
What are the barriers to sustained behavior change with handwashing? What tools and systems need to be in place in order to adopt the desired behavior at scale? Join us to discuss the importance of handwashing in disease prevention in response to the rec