Description
The project addresses the need for the applicant to boost its organizational capacity and sustainability. The project aims at boosting the applicant’s capacity through a series of trainings for its staff. First, a regional network of 6 centres and 12 coordinators will be set up. Second, 27 staff members and coordinators will attend a 3-day meeting to exchange experience with the Norwegian partner. Third, 30 staff members and coordinators will take part in a 3-day training in strategic planning and organizational development. Fourth, a strategic plan for 2015-2020 will be adopted. Next, a standard training programme for breastfeeding consultants will be developed. Finally, the network of voluntary breastfeeding consultants in the cities of Sofia and Pleven will be expanded by 30 more people. The project will benefit the applicant, its staff, coordinators and voluntary consultants as well as breastfeeding mothers and the public in general. The partner will help with its expertise.
Summary of project results
The National Association Support for Breastfeeding successfully applies the “mother-to-mother” support model to provide community-based support. However, a very small number of babies in Bulgaria are breastfed in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The healthcare system has not succeeded in meeting mothers’ needs of support with breastfeeding. The current situation shows the urgent need to improve mothers’ skills to deal with problems during various stages of breastfeeding. The latter meant that the organization had to boost its capacity to address better the above issue. The organization set up a network of 6 centres and 12 coordinators in the country who have the knowledge and skills to support and protect breastfeeding in local communities. 26 members of the organization were trained in strategic planning and learnt also about the experience of the Norwegian partner Ammehjelpen. Training programme for breastfeeding consultants - volunteers was developed and 59 mothers and medical specialists were trained. A Plan for the organizational development and a Strategic Plan for the period 2015-2020 were developed and adopted by the General Assembly of the organization. All project activities were targeted at achieving a long-term change and streamlining the work of the organization. The organizational structure was further developed, strategic planning was carried out, the training programme for volunteers was standardized and the network of voluntary breastfeeding consultants was expanded in Sofia and Pleven. The organization set the beginning of a long-term partnership with the Norwegian organization Ammehjelpen, which contributed with its expert potential. Ammehjelpen held a 3-day working meeting in Sofia to exchange experience and give useful examples in support of the “Mother-to-mother” model in Norway. Afterwards two representatives of the organization attended the annual event of Ammehjelpen in Oslo, where they got more ideas about improving the work of the organization and maintaining the established good partnership relations. The organization and its Norwegian partner planned future joint events.
Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral cooperation contributed to the accomplishment of the project’s goal, namely enhancing the organizational capacity of the National Association Support for Breastfeeding (NASB) in order to achieve sustainability of the efforts in the provided services to the beneficiaries. Experts from Amehjelpen took part in a 3-day experience exchange workshop in Sofia and provided the team of NASB with useful examples of successful implementation of the mothers-to-mothers approach in Norway. Furthermore two representatives of NASB participated in the Annual meeting of Ammehjelpen’s members in Oslo and and in the Annual Breastfeeding Conference organized by Ammehjelpen where more ideas for improving the functioning of the NASB were generated, the achievements of NASB were presented, the partnership was strengthened and further joint events were planned.