The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) in collaboration with the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and its Implementing partners has
extended Primary Health Care Services to Osire refugee camp and implemented the
system jointly. Health education program was introduced and Community Health
Promoters (CHPs) were selected from the refugee communities. The training curriculum
for the training of CHPs on the prevention of diarrhea was developed and training was
conducted in the year 2000.
The researcher has observed that problems of diarrhea in Osire camp still exist despite the
fact that CHPs were trained and were actually teaching the refugees skills to prevent
diarrhea. Therefore this study was conducted to find the answer to the following question:
How effective is health education in the prevention of diarrhea and what methods did
CHPs used in delivering health education activities?
The Objectives of this study are:
 To determine the effectiveness of health education in preventing diarrhea in Osire
refugee camp;
 To identify the methods used in delivering health education activities;
 To assess whether the refugees apply the health information given to them in
preventing diarrheal disease.
A quantitative research design was used and a descriptive strategy was used to obtain the
data. The study was done in Osire refugee camp in Otjozondjupa region. The study
population includes all households in Osire refugee camp and all CHPs who were
available at the time of the study. Since the number of households was known, a stratified
sampling was done and a total of 302 households were sampled.
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The research concluded that the majority of the respondents (64.0%) fall in the age
bracket of 15 – 34 years old while 41.0% had attended primary school education, 25.0%
have never attended primary school. The majority of the respondents, (79.4%) were
taught about the basic factors to prevent diarrhea but on average, only 74.0% of the
respondents were implementing what they were taught. The researcher concluded that
health education was not effective in bringing required changes in refugee’s health
beliefs.
Majority of households with private pit latrines (91.1%) were found to be in a good state
of cleanliness. About 6.6% of the households do not have pit latrines and some of the
latrines are full and abandoned. The majority of the households (81.9%) did not have
children’s faeces nearby. However, the majority of the households were found to have
functional refuse pits.
The researcher found that a significant number of CHPs indicated language was the
major barrier to effective communication.
Recommendations made include regular refresher training courses and in-service training
on the methods used in teaching, and reviewing content of the training curriculum and the
implementation strategy. A mass information campaign is recommended in order to reach
more refugees with health education.