E-learning on life skills and SRHR
The Health[e]Living program offers a unified and inclusive approach to an educational program that covers comprehensive life skills and sexual and reproductive health. Community workers, educators, social workers and peer educators are trained to provide the adolescents in their communities with relevant life skills as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) knowledge. This e-learning course provides learners with information, as well as enhancing their educational skills, in order to strengthen their outreach activities to adolescents and young people. Improving adolescent health and well-being, as well as promoting gender equality, ensures a healthy future for adolescents and young people.
’’Health[e]Living enhances the knowledge of community workers and educators about life skills and sexual and reproductive health and rights to empower their community, ensuring a healthy future for adolescents and young people.”
– Surinamese community health worker
Empowering community workers
The e-learning program focuses on life skills, basic health and sexual and reproductive health and rights. It consists of modules on communication, facilitation skills and outreach to adolescents. Both knowledge and skills are enhanced, thus empowering community workers and educators to reach out to their communities effectively and confidently. Sensitive and difficult topics are transformed into understandable and practical pieces of information and activities, which are ready to use and relevant to the community workers’ clients. All modules include interactive learning activities, short movies, quizzes, animations and educational games for community workers and educators to use with their target groups. The community workers have the freedom to plan activities according to the group characteristics (e.g. previous experience, age, etc.), the number of participants/students and the time available.
“I learnt how to interact with adolescents and how I can train or teach them about various aspects of sexuality.”
Participant Uganda 2019
Modules and focus areas
The e-learning program consists of 10 modules written by renowned experts on life skills, basic health and SRHR.
- Program planning & evaluation
- Facilitation skills and methods
- Communication and relationships
- Reaching out to adolescents
- Healthy body Healthy nutrition
- Gender and sexual orientation
- Safe sex STIs Prevention of HIV
- Women and HIV
- Substance misuse and addiction
- Making your work safe for children and young people
The e-learning program contains globally accepted, evidence-based information and guidelines. The information and guidelines are reviewed to ensure that they are appropriate for the country where the e-learning is offered. Adaptations to the content provided by the original authors are made by local experts.
Implementation and impact in Uganda
The Health[e]Living blended learning program has been successfully implemented in Uganda between 2016 and 2019. Hundreds of community workers, educators, social workers and peer educators have been trained and have used their newly acquired knowledge and skills in their daily practice within Ugandan communities. They have provided more than 13,000 Ugandan community members with comprehensive information about basic health, life skills and SRHR. Evaluation studies showed that participants greatly appreciated the e-learning program. It equipped them with the knowledge and skills to reach their community members effectively and to deliver health information about the most relevant topics. Health[e]Living has proved to be an benefical course for both community workers and community members. It can be implemented in various countries by adapting the content to the local situation.