Melanie Morrow
Director of MCH Programs
World Relief
With input and selected slides from other CG TAG participants
December 9, 2010

Description of a Care Group
A Care Group is a group of 10-15 volunteer, community-based health educators who regularly meet together with project staff for training and supervision.
They are different from typical mother’s groups in that each volunteer is responsible for regularly visiting 10-15 of her neighbors, sharing what she has learned and facilitating behavior change at the household level.

Description (cont.)

Care Groups create a multiplying effect to equitably reach every beneficiary household with interpersonal behavior change communication.

They also provide the structure for a
community health information system that reports on new pregnancies, births and deaths detected during home visits

World Relief Mozambique
Vurhonga 2 Care Group Structure
5 WR Staff Supervisors
26 Health Animators (paid)
173 Care Groups of 10-15
Volunteers 10 Households per volunteer (24,200 total HH reached)

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
2007

Unicef
State of the World’s Children 2008

Countries where Care Groups have been implemented

Bolivia 
Liberia

Burundi 
Malawi

Cambodia 
Mozambique*

DRC 
Niger

Ethiopia 
Philippines

Guatemala 
Rwanda

Indonesia 
Uganda

Kenya 
Zambia
* First Care Group Project in 1995, World Relief Mozambique

Care Group projects serving populations > 1 Million people

Food for the Hungry Mozambique

Cost per beneficiary per year: $2.78

Kabeho Mwana EIP consortium in
Rwanda using modified approach
(Concern Worldwide, The IRC and
World Relief)

World Relief Mozambique SCIP

Key Messages from Care Group TAG

Care Groups are not meant to replace CHWs but they provide a means to extend the reach of
CHWs to achieve high levels of household level behavior change associated with mortality reduction.

Implementation of Care Groups at scale requires partnership with MOH, NGOs and communities.

CareGroupInfo.org