Impact assessment of folk campaign on diarrhoea management, ORS, and watsan

This report presents the results of a study to assess the two phases, the immediate and residual impact, of a UNICEF supported folk campaign carried out in August 1994 in nine districts of the State of Orissa, India. Traditional folk troupes gave village performances dealing with diarrhoea management, ORS and WATSAN with the objective of making people increasingly knowledgeable about safe drinking water, good sanitary habits, and diarrhoea management with ORS. A quasi-experimental field study design was adopted to evaluate the two phases, the first, to assess the immediate impact in terms of retention and knowledge/attitude gain, and the second, to ascertain the level of retention and residual impact to see if in fact there were changes in knowledge, attitude and motivation in respect of using ORS for diarrhoea management, halogen for safe drinking water and improved sanitation measures. The study first gives details of field observations during live performances. This is followed by an impact assessment (supported by tables) including details on message retention, gain in knowledge, the level of motivation and positive attitude generated, and the opinion of respondents on future practice. Data on the current availability levels of ORS and halogen, as well as consumer demand, was collected at the same time. The report concludes that message retention was found to be much more than average in many places, especially when shows were longer; that while men understood the messages better, women were more motivated to adopt practices depicted; and that folk campaigns could be used effectively to increase public awareness if more attention is paid to scheduling and networking with local health officials.