NZAID monitoring visit to Nias

NZAID conducted an end of program monitoring visit to Nias CBHP at the start of April for 3 days. The monitoring visit was lead by Merinda-Lee Hassell from the Wellington head office and Gloriani Panjaitan of NZAID Jakarta. Andew Judge SurfAid’s Chief Operating Officer also joined the visit.

The visited focused on high level meetings with key stakeholders and decision makers in both the districts of Nias and Nias Selatan along with visits to Puskesmas and villages to see Pos Gizi Session and the completed WATSAN facilities.

Meetings in Nias were held with Bappeda, Dinas Kesahtan , UNORC & BRR, ACTED & World Relief. An evening meeting was also held with the Bupati at his personal residence.  Meetings in Nias Selatan  were held with UNORC, SRC & PMI health along with a lunch meeting with heads of government Nias Selatan focused health coordination.

The village visited to Hilamaetaluo was the highlight of the visit with NZAID being able to spot check on four pos gizi sessions across the village. Each session was being managed by the community cader and each was model for transparency, accountability and community lead actions.  After visiting the Pos Gizi Session and Watsan facilities the donors met with the village leaders, elders and stakeholders  who were all delighted to host the visit and continued to demonstrate their great support for the health activities in their village.

Feedback from the donor was all extremely positive and is seen as validation of the results now evident from the Pos Gizi sessions, the Nias team spirit and great collaboration with local communities.

Merinda-Lee reported that “It was super to see first hand the Community Based Health Programms and the implementation of the PD Hearth approach.  It is a very dynamic programme and great to see the commitment of the villages in educating and improving the health of their children.”

The NZAID team were really appreciative for all the effort and enthusiasm that went into making the visit happen and enjoyed meeting the SurfAid team and learning about our challenges and successes.  On behave of the Nias team the only disappoint was that the donors could not visit more villages – but the team remains hopeful that other visitors from within the SurfAid community and beyond will visit to see their efforts and success over the coming months as CBHP I draws to a close.