Three-day trainings are taking place for selected healthcare community workers from Colombo, Wathupitiwala and Nuwara Eliya areas to enhance their capacity on SRH and MHPSS (Mental Health and Psychosocial support services).

The UNFPA-funded and DFAT-supported project aims to provide life-saving reproductive health and protection services to the most vulnerable women and girls, with a particular emphasis on preventing maternal morbidity and all forms of gender-based violence. The services will be provided through FPA Sri Lanka’s 7 SDPs in Nuwara Eliya, Batticaloa, Ampara, Koggala, Seethawaka, Wathupitiwala, and Colombo, covering 6 districts in the country and targeting all women and girls of reproductive age in the selected districts.

The topics that will be addressed will be an overview of SRH, Family Planning and Maternal Health, STDs & HIV, an overview of Mental Health and Psychosocial support, an overview of GBV/ SGBV (Overview of Gender and Sexual orientation, types of GBV, vulnerability and victimization, Screening, Case detection and referral, GBV specific support services and counselling, Psychosocial Services ( Overview on psychological first Aid and Identifying signs and symptoms of acute presentation), Roles and responsibilities of a health worker in the community (Ethics in SRH service provision and Counselling - Confidentiality, Privacy, Gender-sensitive counselling, communications) and recording and reporting processes.

A total of 100 healthcare workers are to be trained and a total of 60 mobile clinics are proposed to be held in selected six districts over the course of four months under this project.