The first round of the RHD Action Small Grants Programme was a huge success last year and we are happy to offer a second year of the Programme thanks to generous support from Medtronic Foundation. This year the funding amount is increased from $2000 to $2500. 

Because of the overwhelming response to our first RFP, four of the highest-scoring, but unfunded, applicants from last year were invited to re-work and resubmit their proposals for funding this year.

The open round RFP cycle was also opened in July to fund four additional project proposals. Winners of that round will be announced at the end of September. 

Here we introduce the winning resubmission leaders and their projects:

Project Title: 
"Community Advocacy and Capacity Building of Community Health Officers on Rheumatic Heart Disease in Osun State, Nigeria"

Project Director: 
Dr John Akintunde Okeniyi 
Nigerian Heart Foundation 
Lagos Nigeria 

Focus Areas: 
Awareness Campaign 
Capacity Building – Health Workers 

Summary: 
The project will target 300 community health officers and extension workers from 30 local government areas of Osun State, Nigeria for educational workshops on ARF/RHD. The project team will develop workshop training/educational materials and take-home resources for the participants. 

The day-long workshop will be conducted at three sites (100 participants each) in each of 3 districts. Activities will be conducted in English and the local language, Yoruba.
 
A pre-test survey will be conducted at the beginning of the work shop. After the workshop presentations, a post-test survey will be conducted to measure the success of the educational objectives as well as any persisting knowledge gaps. Results will be made available to the Ministry of Health by the Nigerian Heart Foundation, as well as to other stakeholders, to promote formal efforts for ARF/RHD control, treatment and awareness in Nigeria.

Project Title: 
"Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of Rheumatic Heart Disease among Health Care Providers in Eastern Nepal: Measuring the Impact of an Educational Intervention" 
 
Project Director(s): 
Dr Swotantra Gautam, Director 
Prof Dr Sanjib K Sharma, Co-Director and Mentor  
BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS)  
Dharan, Nepal B P  

Focus Areas: 
Workshop 
Creation of Educational Materials  
Capacity Building – Health Workers 

Summary:  
This is an exploratory activity to investigate current KAP among primary care health providers at two clinical sites in Eastern Nepal. 

Primary Health Care Centres, followed by district hospitals are the first points of contact for patients living in rural Nepal. A semi-structured questionnaire will be used to collect information on what is known, believed and practiced in relation to prevention and treatment of RHD among 50 primary healthcare providers. Surveys will be directed to the paramedics and basic medical graduates who are typically responsible for providing basic health care, diagnosing RF/RHD, providing secondary prevention of RHD and referring patients for specialist care at these sites.  

Information obtained from the survey will be used to design educational and awareness activities targeted to KAP areas found to be deficit in the form of a one-day workshop that will be conducted at each site. The focus will be on strengthening skills and knowledge for early detection and secondary prevention of RHD. 

Participants will be surveyed at the end of the workshop to measure changes in KAP and the success of the intervention. After final modifications based on the findings of the post-test survey, the educational materials will be disseminated to other primary care sites in Nepal.

Project Title: 
"Reproductive Health Services and Cardiovascular Health- RHD: The RESCUE RHD Project"

Project Directors: 
Ms Keila Jamal and Dr Ana Olga Mocumbi 
Mozambique Institute for Health Education and Research (MIHER) 
Maputo, Mozambique 

Focus Areas: 
Workshop 
Patient Empowerment 
Capacity Building – Health Workers 

Summary: 
This project entails three activities aimed at improving knowledge of common cardiovascular diseases (including RHD) and improving access to care for women of child bearing age. These activities include:

1. Holding workshops for and disseminating educational material to Gynaecology-Obstetrics specialists, residents and nurses on early detection of RHD. The Reproductive Health Services for Women Living with Rheumatic Heart Disease (RESCUE) educational materials have already been created by Dr Mocumbi and her team.  
2. Piloting the implementation of a joint Obstetrics and Cardiovascular clinic (focused on family planning services and post-partum care). The joint Cardio/Obstetrics consultation and referral system are expected to be adopted by the participating health facilities. 
3. Conducting three focus group sessions with RHD patients to assess their knowledge, perceptions and communication skills to engage in peer-to-peer education on family planning and reproductive health.  10 patients will be targeted to create a pool of peer-to-peer educators using health education materials adapted to the Mozambican setting 

The activities will be carried out at three hospital sites in Maputo, Mozambique. These are follow-on activities to the Program for Prevention and Control of RHD created by Professor Mocumbi in 2014. This Prevention and Control programme has been endorsed by the Ministry of Health.  

Results and achievements will be disseminated to stakeholders, notably policy-makers at the Ministry of Health, to make RHD a priority issue to be addressed by the National Health System, aiming at reducing maternal mortality caused by RHD. 

Project Title: 
"Kick RHD Out of Plateau State" 

Project Directors:  
Professor Fidelia Bode-Thomas, Project Director  
Mr Santos Ayuba Larab, Focus Group Discussion Coordinator 
Heart Aid Trust, Inc., Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria  

Focus Areas: 
Creation of Educational Materials 
Patient Empowerment 

Summary: 
Prof Bode-Thomas and her team aim to educate the public and PLWRHD/families on ARF/RHD prevention and control by creating educational materials and messages in local languages and cultural contexts for rural populations who share a disproportionate share of the RHD burden in their region. The objective of this project is to produce culturally relevant Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials on ARF and RHD in English, and then translate them into Hausa and Berom local languages for PLWRHD/families and community members in rural communities in Jos/Plateau State, Nigeria. 

The project firstly entails the development of a patient/public education manual on ARF and RHD to provide information on RHD prevention, Living with RHD and optimising quality of life, and Advocacy for RHD control. Focus Group Discussions will be conducted in English, and the local languages of Hausa and Berom, to collect data on knowledge, attitude and practices about RHD and sore throat among PLWRHD/families and lay communities.  The aim will be to identify misconceptions and knowledge gaps to ensure they are addressed in the manual.  

The manual will then be translated into Hausa and Berom. New posters and educational leaflets will be created based on the new manual. Posters and educational leaflets will be produced in English and Hausa. Radio jingles will be produced in English, Hausa, and Berom.

Two stakeholder workshops will be conducted to present the new manual and solicit suggestions to improve message clarity. The IEC materials will be reviewed for clarity, cultural appropriateness and quality.  Finally, the IEC materials will be field tested and evaluated for impact. In the long term, electronic and hard copy IEC materials will be distributed.

We look forward to announcing the successful recipients of the open round RFP cycle at the end of September. You can keep up to date with project updates from the 2018 Small Grants on our website here and also by following RHD Action on Facebook and Twitter.