We hosted a webinar “Evaluating the adapted “Reach Up” responses to the COVID-19 pandemic:  Lessons from country adaptations” on Wednesday July 19, 2023 from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.

The webinar was held online and featured lessons from the evaluation of various remote or limited contact interventions adopted from Reach Up, during the COVID-19 pandemic.  These include adaptations from Bangladesh (an International Rescue Committee-led initiative), Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Brazil,  Jamaica and Guatemala.

The presenters were as follows:

•  Promoting child stimulation through phone messages: A randomized evaluation in Guatemala – Dr. Julieta Trias (Snr. Economist, Social Protection and Jobs, Latin America Region, World Bank Group) and Dr. Irma Arteaga (Associate Professor of Public Policy, Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, University of Missouri)
• Hybrid Delivery of ECD Services during the Pandemic in LAC: Lessons learnt – Dr. Marta Rubio Codina (Senior Economist, Child Development Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank)
• Gindegi Goron: Reaching Rohingya refugee caregivers during COVID-19 – Katelin Wilton (Technical Adviser, Early Childhood Development, International Rescue Committee)
• Evaluating remote response via telephone calls in Jamaica – Dr Joanne Smith (Lecturer, Caribbean Institute for Health Research, The University of the West Indies)

Our second Reach Up train-the-trainer workshop held virtually in Nov/Dec 2021 is featured in this issue.  We had 13 participants from 6 organisations across 7 countries (U.S.A., Armenia, Georgia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Madagascar).  Round-up information on the Reach Up Global Community and links to recent key publications – impact evaluations on adaptations of Reach Up in various countries – are also included in the issue.

Download/read here

In this issue, we highlight our first Reach Up train-the-trainer workshop held virtually over the period June to July 2021.  Seventeen persons participated from 5 organizations across 7 countries (Argentina, Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Laos and Palestine).

Download/read here

This issue highlights key lessons from implementers using a variety of virtual methods to reach families since the COVID-19 panic.  Some adaptations started between August and September 2020.  Implementers presented on thie respective programmes at a webinar “Adapting Reach Up in Response to COVID-19: Challenges and Learnings” held in October 2020.  We also include some features of the new Supervisor’s Handbook in this issue.

Download/read here

In this issue, we briefly highlight some of the adaptations made to the Reach Up intervention in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the new Parent Manual, developed by members of the Reach Up team, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank.  The Parent Manual provides content that can be shared with parents to support playful interactions with activities for children up to age 3 years old.

Download/read here – Vol 1 Iss 2 – July 2020

The third virtual Reach-Up “train-the-trainer” workshop was held April 12 – 27, 2023.
The workshop was  led by Reach Up lead trainers, Drs. Christine Powell and Susan Chang-Lopez from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica and certified trainer Ayat Al Aqra’e from the International Rescue Committee, Jordon.
Participants

There were 14 participants, from three organizations Argentina (Mendoza Education Ministry), Malawi (We Chat) and Zambia (Children’s Hospital, Lusaka).

Our second virtual training workshop was held November 29 to December 10, 2021. These were a mix of synchronous sessions held on the Zoom platform and asynchronous sessions mounted on the Moodle Learning Management System. The live sessions were between 1.5 to 2 hours in duration.

Thirteen persons participated from 6 organizations – World Bank (U.S.A.), World Vision International (Armenia, Georgia and Uganda), Catholic Relief Services (Zimbabwe), Mother & Baby (Kenya), UPNNC (Madagascar) and University of Zambia (Uganda). The training was carried out in English, with simultaneous interpretation in French/Malagasy.