A highly successful terminal review meeting was held on August 5, 2024, at Naky Hotel in Bahirdar, Ethiopia. The meeting was organized by Partners which, with funding from the 5S Foundation, has been implementing a project titled "Increasing Awareness and Health Service-Seeking Behaviors Regarding Stigmatizing Skin Diseases in Selected Schools and Communities." (5S Ethiopia Project). The primary objective of the meeting was to review the progress of project activities conducted in five target schools across three woredas in the Amhara region, and to discuss future directions and sustainability. Various stakeholders participated in the meeting, including the Deputy Head of the Regional Education Bureau, the Project Lead and Coordinator from the 5S Ethiopia Project, representatives from the Regional Finance and Economic Bureau, the Health Bureau, five woreda secondary and primary schools’ principals, students, teachers, woredas’ education office staff, woredas’ health office staff, volunteers, community health workers,Partners’ staff, and others.
The meeting commenced with a warm welcome and introduction by Partners’ Regional Program Coordinator, Abiyot Ashenafi. Following this, Ato Mekuwant Ademe, Deputy Head of the Amhara Region Education Bureau, recognized and appreciated Partners' significant role in the education sector in the Amhara region. He also highlighted the project's contribution to addressing health issues within the education sector and urged participants to take valuable lessons back to their communities to sustain the initiatives launched by the project.
Professor Genet Tadele, Country Lead and Principal Investigator of the 5S Ethiopia project, then spoke, emphasizing the importance of working within schools to bring about significant changes in communities regarding neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), specifically podoconiosis and scabies. Professor Getnet provided a brief overview of the project, outlining its vision, aims, and major achievements, particularly its focus on research, capacity-building activities, and public engagement accomplishments. He concluded by stressing the importance of ownership of project initiatives to ensure their sustainability in the targeted woredas and schools. Following Professor Getnet's remarks, Marnat Adugna, the School Health Program Head at Partners, presented the key results, challenges, and lessons learned, and invited voices from several students and a community health worker directly involved in implementing the project.
A question-and-answer session followed, and participants from various sectors and institutions contributed their reflections on the project.. Following, the session chairs, Professor Getnet and Partners’ Executive Director, Yehalem Abebe, summarized the key issues raised and reiterated the importance of taking these insights back to the communities, schools, and woredas to ensure sustainability and ownership of the project. The workshop concluded with comments from Garedew Yilma from 5S Foundation Ethiopia, Abiyot Ashenafi, and Yehalem Abebe.