Family
Health &
Wellbeing
Family is the fundamental institution of organization in society. It provides the social environment where individuals are born, nurtured, learn to socialize and where an individual’s behavior and views take shape. It is within the family that sociocultural traditions and economic influences including those that affect health are extended to individuals and in turn impact health behavior. The different nature of families whether joint or nuclear, continue to play a pivotal role in nurturing and socializing children and influencing the development of adolescents, serving as a support structure for family members, influencing health impacting behaviors – both positive and negative and providing opportunities and role models for healthy living.
Faith to Action Network members invest in family health and well-being, enabling human beings to develop and enjoy full and fulfilling lives. Faith to Action Network aims to ensure that faith actors are empowered to lead change and take action for better family health and well-being. Through its programmes, Faith to Action Network promotes discussions on how families influence health behaviors and outcomes through the life-course; Identify programme initiatives that can assist families to adopt healthy lifestyle options; and identify the way forward across sectors that can empower families to adopt healthy practices.
As communities of faith, we are called upon to attend to the “total person,” that is, address the person holistically. Our different religious traditions address the physical, social, emotional, intellectual, occupational, political, security, economic, and environmental dimensions of wellness. Consequently, issues relating to family health and well-being are integral to our identity as communities of faith.
Members are acutely aware of the numerous challenges that women, adolescents and young people and children face in our communities. In particular, we are struck by the limited access to information and services, the high incidences of teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, HIV infections, and limited nutrition options that destroy or derail people’s lives.
Our faiths encourage all people, including adolescents and youth, to acquire life-giving knowledge. Accessing age-appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information about how our bodies function, promoting healthy sexuality and preventing violence enables individuals to contribute constructively towards their communities and flourishing societies. We encourage our members to seek knowledge and services so that, alongside the teaching of our faiths, they can make informed choices
The family, as a setting of practice, is increasingly recognized as critical to health promotion. A better understanding of the nature and process through which families take an active part in their own health can serve as the basis for designing and linking health interventions with public health programs. The integrating function of the family, viewed through an ecological context, makes it an effective entry point and central focus in health promotion.
Using the social ecological model Faith to Action Network programmes to identify factors at different levels (the individual, the interpersonal level, the community, society; that contribute to poor health and to develop approaches to prevention intervention and health promotion that include action at those levels. This approach focuses on integrating approaches to change the physical and social environments rather than modifying only individual health behaviours.
The family, as a setting of practice, is increasingly recognized as critical to health promotion. A better understanding of the nature and process through which families take an active part in their own health can serve as the basis for designing and linking health interventions with public health programs. The integrating function of the family, viewed through an ecological context, makes it an effective entry point and central focus in health promotion.
Through this model Faith to Action Network is able to identify community-engaged partnerships to identify a comprehensive list of factors that contribute to poor health and develop a broad approach to health problems that involves actions at many levels to produce and reinforce change.
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Individual
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Interpersonal relationships
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Community
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Society
Individual
The first level of the model (at the extreme right) includes individual biology and other personal characteristics, such as age, education, income, and health history. The second level, relationship, includes a person’s closest social circle, such as friends, partners, and family members, all of whom influence a person’s behaviour and contribute to his or her experiences. The third level, community, explores the settings in which people have social relationships, such as schools, workplaces, and neighbourhoods, and seeks to identify the characteristics of these settings that affect health. Finally, the fourth level looks at the broad societal factors that favour or impair health. Examples here include cultural and social norms and the health, economic, educational, and social policies that help to create, maintain, or lessen socioeconomic inequalities between groups (CDC, 2007; Krug et al., 2002).
Given their trusted and strong presence, there is tremendous potential for faith organisations to influence people’s choices on family health and wellbeing. Faith to Action Network mobilizes faith organizations’ support for integration and streamlining of policies, services, and funding for family health and well-being. Through Family health promotion Faith to Action Network supports families through faith and community spaces to work on improving or maintaining their physical well-being of the family unit and its members’. Changing the values, norms and behaviour patterns in a social unit like the family may create longer-lasting and larger scale behavioural change.
By targeting the individual level our programmes are concerned with an individual’s knowledge and skills which helps inform them about how susceptible they are to the health threat. Knowledge helps a great deal by influencing key attitudes and decisions individuals make. Faith to Action Network uses Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC), mass campaigns such as social media with targets many individuals at once. Behaviour change communication works by raising awareness about the problem, increasing knowledge about the health benefits of the targeted health behaviour change, promoting attitude changes in favour of the healthier behaviour, reducing stigma surrounding the healthy behaviour, creating demand for the health intervention, promoting services for the prevention and control of the health problem, and improving skills of self-efficacy for the individuals involved.
Interpersonal Relationships
The interpersonal level has to do with a person’s relationships with other people – family, friends, and so on. At this level, Faith to Action Network uses behaviour change communication and social change communication.
Social Change Communication
Faith to Action Network uses social change communication in combination with social behaviour change communication, at the interpersonal level to encourage participation, and targets large scale behaviour changes. Behaviours targeted include social norms and culture-specific practices. We use interventions such as mass-media campaigns, social-media campaigns, or information communication technology strategies, which can act as catalysts for health behaviour change. The system of social change communication is built on the idea that an individual community has the ability to change unhealthy social norms, cultural practices, environmental favours, and policies on their own. The collective efficacy these populations gain from such social change communication can enable them to make additional health behaviour changes in the future.
The Organizational / Community Level
This has the opportunity to reach more people in different sectors of the community. Faith to Action Network mobilizes relevant stakeholders to pool resources and ideas together in order to improve community health. For example, we collaborate with the MoH in our programme areas to have some of their health care workers teach health education in a nearby school; coordinate health events designed to educate and equip affiliates with knowledge and materials to help prevent health threats and promote service uptake; At the community level, social change communication and social mobilization is used.
Social Mobilization
This approach is adopted to engage and motivate national and community leaders, public and private partners, and community organizations to make health changes. The catalyst of these health changes is the community. By using the social mobilization approach, they are empowered to make their own health changes. This also allows the community to help with the development of appropriate health interventions, implementation of such changes, and monitoring of the changes. In order to effectively develop behaviour, change interventions, interventions at other levels of the Social Ecological Model should also be used.
At the final level Public Policy – the governing bodies are in charge of the prevention effort. They do this by establishing agencies and laws at every level of government to do research on the spread of STDs and figure out more effective ways of dealing with the problem. The government should set the laws and enforce those laws. This level of the Socio-ecological Model is important because it affects a larger portion of the population than the other levels.
Advocacy
Advocacy consists of well-thought out and organized efforts designed to convince individuals in leadership roles, such as policymakers, program planners, and community leaders, to make health changes at the policy level. Faith to Action Network has used three different types of advocacy – policy advocacy, community advocacy, and media advocacy to (1) to promote the development of new policies, change existing governmental or organizational laws, policies or rules, and/or ensure the adequate implementation of existing policies (2) to redefine public perceptions, social norms and procedures, (3) to support protocols that benefit specific populations affected by existing legislation, norms and procedures, and/or (4) to influence funding decisions for specific initiatives”.
Through policy advocacy, we have encouraged legislative, social, and infrastructural element changes via policy both at sub-national, national and regional level. Faith to Action Network has also encouraged individuals withing communities to demand policy changes using community advocacy. Additionally, through media advocacy we have pushed policy makers towards changes, which make the environment healthier.
Faith to Action Network programmes are targeting all the groups at multiple levels simultaneously through multilevel interventions so as to promote long-term behaviour change.
We mobilize Faith Organizations for Family Health and Wellbeing
Faith to Action Network leverageses on the organizations influence, networks, and resources of religious institutions to promote health initiatives that benefit families. As an organization we recognize the pivotal role faith communities play in shaping the values, behaviours, and social norms of their members, hence our enhanced effort in outreaches that improve access to health services, and foster environments conducive to healthy living. Given their trusted and strong presence, there is tremendous potential for faith organisations to influence people’s choices on family health and wellbeing. Faith to Action Network does these through mobilizing faith organizations’ support for integration and streamlining of policies, services, and funding for family health and well-being.
Given their trusted and strong presence, there is tremendous potential of faith organisations to influence people’s choices on family health and wellbeing. Faith to Action Network mobilizes faith organizations’ support for integration and streamlining of policies, services and funding for family health and wellbeing. Below is a description of opportunities Faith to Action Network capitalizes on to achieve this:
Faith organizations represent strong pillars of Africa’s health systems. 30% to 70% of the African health infrastructure is owned by faith organisations. On average, private health providers account for 28 % of the sources of modern contraceptive methods in Africa.
Faith organisations harness tremendous power to shape public policy. High level decision makers’ commitment to family health and wellbeing is strongly influenced by factors such as prevailing cultural and religious attitudes. In many countries, winning the support of faith organisations for SRHR can have a snowball effect in policy and funding arenas.
Faith organizations serve as hubs of social connectivity. In addition to providing care, support and medicines, faith leaders often also provide less tangible assistance, such as information, encouragement, compassion and hope. Faith leaders and centres of religious life very often also serve as hubs of social connectivity. As a result, faith-based leaders can play an important role in strengthening and sustaining communities’ abilities to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from incidents with negative health consequences through individual and community resilience.
Faith to Action Network’s better packaging of language and terminologies has increased faith actors’ acceptance of family health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, many misperceptions and misinformation on family health and wellbeing and interpretation of scriptures prevail in religious circles. Faith leaders, staff in faith organizations, teachers in faith-run schools and health workers in faith-run facilities do not always have access to current knowledge and skills. Many faiths organizations’ resistance to family health and wellbeing is grounded in inadequate terminology. Language is not adapted to culture, beliefs, ages and education levels of people. Faith to Action Network offers this translation and interpretation expertise.
Faith to Action Network has created spaces to engage in policy discussions at regional level, national and sub-national level. Decision making often happens behind closed doors without meaningful involvement of faith organizations. This hinders ownership and buy-in of policies and creates resistance.
Faith to Action Network has increased faith organizations’ exposure to different faith interpretations, methodologies and approaches on family health and wellbeing, by organizing dialogues and exchanges between faith organizations. Often, lack of exposure to other ideas and approaches leads to closed cultural horizons, standing in the way of self-reflection, innovation, experimenting and change.
Faith to Action Network’s research and demonstration projects generate evidence on faith organizations family health and wellbeing activities. Generally, there is little data on faith organizations’ health services, and even less on the provision of family health and wellbeing services, commodities and information, hampering planning and decision making. Faith-run health facilities report inconsistently into DHIS2. Demographic Health Surveys provide little information or none at all.
Faith to Action Network has brokered partnerships and alliances between unlikely partners – interfaith, intra-faith and with secular organizations. This has increased the voice and impact of faith organizations family health and wellbeing work. Most stakeholders preach to the converted, failing to engage and partner with those holding different ideas. This creates missed opportunities in taking advantage of each others’ strengths.
Faith to Action Network has mobilized faith organizations’ resources for family health and wellbeing. Faith actors represent an untapped funding source for the delivery of family health and wellbeing services. Information from the Ugandan government hints at large contributions to health financing: It notes that the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau provided 12% of the clinical health workforce. 28% was paid by partners (government, donors, religious organizations) and 72% from internally generated resources. Resource mobilization efforts need to target internal resources from faith organisations, and their capacity to fundraise from local communities and governments.
Understanding the Role of religion in promoting health:
Faith organizations encompass a wide range of groups including churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, religious academic institutions and other religious entities.
Religion is central to people’s lives. Between 69% and 98% of the population in Africa describes religion as “very important” in their lives” (Pew 2010). Religious beliefs often affect individuals’ behaviours which impact health, including age at marriage, family structure and roles and preventive health practices like strategies couples use to achieve their preferred family size. More so, FBOs and religious leaders are influential voices with policy makers and communities, with growing evidence that they can be strong advocates for promoting health initiatives. Faith to Action Network therefore capitalizes on the organizations established trust within their communities and build their capacity to use these spaces to effectively communicate health messages.
The role of the interfaith community:
Education and Awareness: Faith to Action Network mobilizes faith organizations to provide educational programs on various health topics such as family planning, maternal and child health, adolescent and Youths Sexual Reproductive Health (AYSRH), mental health, preventive care, and chronic disease management. The faith institutions do these through integrating the health messages in religious sermons, hosting workshops or seminars that inform families about available resources and community outreaches.
Support Networks: Faith to Action Network identifies and work through established faith communities who offer support groups that address specific issues related to family health and wellbeing. These networks are instrumental in providing support and practical assistance to families facing health-related challenges.
Advocacy: Faith to Action Network through the faith organizations advocate for policies that promote family health at local, state / national and regional levels. This includes lobbying for better healthcare in terms of availability, accessibility and affordability or increase in funding for community health programs.
Resource Mobilization: Through the faith institutions, Faith to Action Network has been able to mobilize resources both financial and human to support health initiatives in their communities. By mobilizing volunteers from within their congregation, the faith communities have been able to effectively reach underserved populations.
Holistic Approach to Health: Many faith traditions emphasize holistic wellbeing—addressing physical, mental, spiritual, and social aspects of health. Mobilizing these organizations allows for a comprehensive approach to family wellbeing that aligns with their values.
Places of safety
Faith to Action Network through its programmes creates safe spaces in the faith institutions for vulnerable groups such as survivors of GBV, PLWHIV, teenage mothers etc. In the cases where there is no family or community safety net, and particularly vulnerable children are left with no other means of support, temporary safe houses are found within the institutions while a long-term solution is sort.
Giving young women and women a voice:
Faith to Action Network in partnership with its members and other Faith-based community groups establish safe spaces for different vulnerable groups in the faith spaces for instance the survivors of GBV, PLWHIV, pregnant or young mothers etc.
Faith organizations represent strong pillars of Africa’s health systems
30% to 70% of the African health infrastructure is owned by faith organisations. On average, private health providers account for 28 % of the sources of modern contraceptive methods in Africa.
There is a pressing need to fortify national and local supply chains for health care essentials. Investing in these supply chains not only helps us prepare for future emergencies but also ensures that the present health care needs of communities are met effectively.
Faith to Action Network through its donor funded programmes has supported integrated, holistic and sustainable health systems in their area of work thus increasing access to quality health care in these areas. This involves working directly with national and local government entities and other key players to provide technical assistance and capacity building support to strengthen engagement, capability and investment at all levels of the health system.
Faith to Action Network focuses on supporting both public and faith-based sectors through the World Health Organization’s recommended six building blocks of health systems strengthening: improved health service delivery; health workforce development; health information systems, access to essential medical products, vaccines and technologies; health system financing; and leadership and governance.
Partnership with other stakeholders and faith-based networks
Faith to Action Network partners with other faith-based networks to address gaps identified in the supply chain of health commodities in the health facilities through Medicine Transparency Alliance (MeTA) or multi-sectoral platforms, Technical Working Groups both at sub-national, national and regional level. The project strengthens Drugs ssupply chains to ensure that a consistent supply of affordable and quality-assured medical products reaches communities in their area of operation while building the capacity of relevant health care workers in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to develop the technical skills of health care personnel and build stronger and more sustainable systems.
Expanding the role of faith-based organizations in SRHR and family planning advocacy
Faith to Action Network through the partner faith organizations and Faith leaders has been an effective SRHR and family planning advocates for policy change, funding, and services. Through evidence-based knowledge from their research, training, support within their faith communities, as well as respect for their beliefs and values, their voices have been listened to and policies and guideline have been developed, reviewed, amended and implemented through their contribution. FBOs and religious leaders are influential voices with policy makers and communities, with growing evidence that they can be strong advocates for FP.
An evaluation of the Faith to Action Network in 6 African countries identified several policy successes based on religious leaders’ input in those countries.10 For example, in Ghana, advocacy from network members contributed to the government including FP in the National Health Insurance Act 852 in 2015.
To empower religious leaders to use evidence-based arguments in support of SRHR including FP, we trained leaders in advocacy, provided technical information about FP, and had discussions on the biblical support for SRHR.
“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1 Timothy 5:8
Parents must plan for their children, strive for healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, and work to have the family they can support, consistent with their beliefs and values.
Increasing Demand for SRHR services
In addition to using their church platforms to inform people about SRHR and refer them appropriately, the religious leader SRHR champions use a variety of communications tools to reach the public, including television, radio, social media and online media. The initiatives to increase demand are coordinated with other stakeholders too
Reaching Youth
Partners and members of Faith to Action Network help educate youth on avoiding pregnancy and HIV. This is done in collaboration with the county and the religious leaders, county health officials inviting each other in their spaces
Faith organisations harness tremendous power to shape public policy
High-level decision-makers’ commitment to family health and well-being is strongly influenced by factors such as prevailing cultural and religious attitudes. In many countries, winning the support of faith organisations for SRHR can have a snowball effect in policy and funding arenas.
Faith Organizations serve as hubs of Social Connectivity
In addition to providing care, support and medicines, faith leaders often also provide less tangible assistance, such as information, encouragement, compassion and hope. Faith leaders and centres of religious life very often also serve as hubs of social connectivity. As a result, faith-based leaders can play an important role in strengthening and sustaining communities’ abilities to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from incidents with negative health consequences through individual and community resilience.
Language and Terminologies
Faith to Action Network’s better packaging of language and terminologies has increased faith actors’ acceptance of family health and wellbeing.
Unfortunately, many misperceptions and misinformation on family health and wellbeing and interpretation of scriptures prevail in religious circles. Faith leaders, staff in faith organizations, teachers in faith-run schools and health workers in faith-run facilities do not always have access to current knowledge and skills. Many faith organizations’ resistance to family health and well-being is grounded in inadequate terminology. Language is not adapted to the culture, beliefs, ages, and education levels of people. Faith to Action Network offers this translation and interpretation expertise.
Policy Discussions
Faith to Action Network has created spaces to engage in policy discussions at regional level, national, and sub-national levels. Decision-making often happens behind closed doors without meaningful involvement of faith organizations. This hinders ownership and buy-in of policies and creates resistance.
Faith organisations harness tremendous power to shape public policy
High-level decision-makers’ commitment to family health and well-being is strongly influenced by factors such as prevailing cultural and religious attitudes. In many countries, winning the support of faith organisations for SRHR can have a snowball effect in policy and funding arenas.
Some of the policies Faith to Action Network has participated in development or reviewing.
Exposure:
Faith to Action Network has increased faith organizations’ exposure to different faith interpretations, methodologies and approaches to family health and wellbeing
This is through organizing dialogues and exchanges between faith organizations. Often, lack of exposure to other ideas and approaches leads to closed cultural horizons, standing in the way of self-reflection, innovation, experimenting and change.
Faith to Action Network’s research and demonstration projects generate evidence on faith organizations family health and well-being activities
Generally, there is little data on faith organizations’ health services, and even less on the provision of family health and wellbeing services, commodities and information, hampering planning and decision-making. Faith-run health facilities report inconsistently into DHIS2. Demographic Health Surveys provide little information or none at all.
Faith to Action Network has brokered partnerships and alliances between unlikely partners – interfaith, intra-faith, and with secular organizations
This has increased the voice and impact of faith organizations family health and well-being work. Most stakeholders preach to the converted, failing to engage and partner with those holding different ideas. This creates missed opportunities to take advantage of each other’s strengths.
Faith to Action Network has mobilized faith organizations’ resources for family health and wellbeing
Faith actors represent an untapped funding source for the delivery of family health and wellbeing services.
Faith to Action Network’s better packaging of language and terminologies has increased faith actors’ acceptance of family health and wellbeing
Unfortunately, many misperceptions and misinformation on family health and wellbeing and interpretation of scriptures prevail in religious circles. Faith leaders, staff in faith organizations, teachers in faith-run schools and health workers in faith-run facilities do not always have access to current knowledge and skills. Many faith organizations’ resistance to family health and well-being is grounded in inadequate terminology. Language is not adapted to the culture, beliefs, ages, and education levels of people. Faith to Action Network offers this translation and interpretation expertise.
Faith to Action Network has created spaces to engage in policy discussions at regional level, national, and sub-national levels
Decision-making often happens behind closed doors without meaningful involvement of faith organizations. This hinders ownership and buy-in of policies and creates resistance.
Faith to Action Network has increased faith organizations’ exposure to different faith interpretations, methodologies and approaches to family health and wellbeing
This is through organizing dialogues and exchanges between faith organizations. Often, lack of exposure to other ideas and approaches leads to closed cultural horizons, standing in the way of self-reflection, innovation, experimenting and change.
Faith to Action Network’s research and demonstration projects generate evidence on faith organizations family health and well-being activities
Generally, there is little data on faith organizations’ health services, and even less on the provision of family health and wellbeing services, commodities and information, hampering planning and decision-making. Faith-run health facilities report inconsistently into DHIS2. Demographic Health Surveys provide little information or none at all.
Faith to Action Network has brokered partnerships and alliances between unlikely partners – interfaith, intra-faith, and with secular organizations
This has increased the voice and impact of faith organizations family health and well-being work. Most stakeholders preach to the converted, failing to engage and partner with those holding different ideas. This creates missed opportunities to take advantage of each other’s strengths.
Faith to Action Network has mobilized faith organizations’ resources for family health and wellbeing
Faith actors represent an untapped funding source for the delivery of family health and wellbeing services. Information from the Ugandan government hints at large contributions to health financing: It notes that the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau provided 12% of the clinical health workforce. 28% was paid by partners (government, donors, religious organizations) and 72% from internally generated resources. Resource mobilization efforts need to target internal resources from faith organisations, and their capacity to fundraise from local communities and governments.
