Background

COVID 19 has had a significant impact on overall health care provision in the country. Due to movement restrictions, SRH service delivery has been intermittent, jeopardizing service accessibility. The RESPOND programme, funded by DFAT (Australian government), will address critical SRH service delivery gaps during the COVID 19 pandemic.

The RESPOND programme, funded by DFAT (Australian government), will address critical SRH service delivery gaps during the COVID 19 pandemic. FPASL will primarily focus on providing SRH to poor, marginalized, and underserved populations, including adolescents and people with disabilities. Service delivery will be primarily driven by the organization’s seven static clinics (including the clinic attached to FPASL's head office, known as the Centre for Family Health) and community-based distributors.

This programme ensures the inclusion of poor and vulnerable women, as well as other marginalized groups such as transgender people. Activities are included to address the issues of gender-based violence though capacity building of service providers, strengthening referral mechanisms, and scaling up SGBV screening at the clinic level. This programme will also have specially focused activities for people living with disabilities and transgender communitie

Target beneficiaries

The primary target beneficiaries include people living with a disability, adolescents and young persons, women/girls of reproductive age, poor, marginalized, underserved people, garment factory workers, LGBTQI and key populations, estate workforce, and urban and slum dwellers.The seven clinics involved in this Project are located in six Districts; Colombo, Gampaha, Galle, Batticaloa, Ampara and Nuwera-Eliya, and span across four provinces, including two clinics in the Colombo District; Seethawaka and Head Office.

Project Activities

Providing high-quality SRH services through established service delivery channels

• SRH service provision across seven static clinics.
• SRH service provision via outreach mobile clinics
• Supporting 25 associated clinics located in six service delivery locations. These associated clinics will offer contraception, counselling and sexual health care to 3,900 female factory workers, many of whom are under the age of 30 
• Integrating static clinics and mobile clinics with community-based services. An improved referral system will be established between existing service delivery channels and Volunteer Health Assistants (VHAs). The VHAs will offer home visits to provide short-term methods of contraception and basic information on SRH. They will also provide referrals for follow-up care, organize mobile clinics, and participate in awareness programs.
• Distribution of contraceptives, medical supplies and equipment to six static clinics from FPASL’s Head Office.

Strengthening organizational and healthcare provider capacity (staff, private, and public sector) in provision of quality comprehensive SRH services and COVID-19 response

• Training of 40 service providers and Service Delivery Point (SDP) managers attached to the six statics clinics and the Centre for Family Health on Infection Control and Universal Precaution guidelines
• Training of 30 service providers and SDP managers attached to the six static clinics and the Centre for Family Health on syndromic management of STIs.
• Capacity building of 7 laboratory technicians and strengthening laboratory facilities to provide cervical cytology analysis services.
• Capacity building of 10 counsellors on provision of age specific & gender sensitive SRH counselling services, to help ensure client privacy and confidentiality.
• Online training of 30 counsellors and service providers on SGBV screening and counselling, including basic SRH knowledge and counselling.
• Conducting training programmes for 30 CBDs /volunteer health assistants on home delivery of contraceptives, dissemination of basic SRH information, referrals, and how to organize mobile clinics and awareness programmes.
• Development of a mobile application with offline solutions for data collection by community-based service providers. This will effectively replace the need for daily record books and bi-weekly reports.
• Refurbishment of all static clinics under this project, including equipping existing laboratories within the clinics.

Strengthening the provision of SGBV services and referral pathways for SGBV survivors

• Mapping of district-level SGBV service providers and centres (government/ private /NGO in six districts) and establishing a referral mechanism for providing SRHR and other services to SGBV survivors. Under the programme, FPASL will hire an external SGBV consultant to support this activity.
• Printing of GBV screening formats and promotional materials

Strengthening the supply of essential SRH and infection prevention commodities and supplies

Procurement of commodities will ensure uninterrupted supply for clinical services planned in this programme, taking into consideration the uncertainty of supply chain and financing issues which could arise during the COVID pandemic situation. FPASL will maintain a buffer stock under the regular supervision of the M&E unit to mitigate against stock outs.

• Procurement of contraceptive products.
• Procurement of essential SRH medical supplies.
• Procurement of consumables.
• Procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), infection control, and waste management items.

Enabling access to digital health services (telemedicine) and alternative service delivery models (home-based care, self-care, etc. for women, men, and young people

In addition to its established service delivery channels, FPASL will implement three new channels of service delivery and integrate them with the existing service provision methods:

• Expand and increase capacity of telemedicine and tele-counselling1] services by collaborating with a local telemedicine platform to provide services remotely.
• Implement a home delivery model for contraception and other SRH commodities via local couriers and community-based service providers, to ensure clients can continue to access short-term methods of contraception.
• Provide a home care service, led by FPASL’s seven static clinics, to offer contraceptive and basic laboratory services for clients in their homes who are unable to visit service centres, especially people living with disabilities.

Increasing availability, accessibility, and acceptability of SRH self-care approaches and home delivery

• Develop and conduct an assessment on the feasibility of a home delivery model of SRH commodities such as contraceptive items (oral contraceptives, condoms, and emergency contraception), lubricants, pregnancy test kits, and HIV self-testing strips. In this model, the commodities will be delivered to the doorstep of clients by local courier services and/or CBDs.  
• Implement a home delivery model by integrating telemedicine and community-based service provision through local couriers and CBDs. Service delivery will be carried out by Community based distributors.
• Develop and implement a home care service. Draw on service providers from nearby static clinics to offer SRH services in clients’ homes who are otherwise unable to access SRH care at a clinic

Conducting awareness raising activities through radio, campaigns, TV, SMS, and social media

• Conduct ongoing social media campaigns to promote SRH information and services, including new service delivery channels. Develop key messages, communications materials, and translate as required.
• Conduct SRH awareness raising programmes and promotional activities through social media live sessions
• Development of one video clip to promote FPASL new SRH service delivery modalities (telemedicine, home visits, and home delivery services). The video will be uploaded across FPASL’s social media platforms and distributed via other media channels such as social media, websites’, and live screens available in garment factories and static clinics.

Strengthening FPA’s remote counselling/hotlines

• Provide hotline SRH counselling services through our existing Happy Life contact centre and static clinics.
• Scale up the Happy Life contact centre to provide age specific and youth friendly SRH counselling by recruiting a young service provider with an SRH background. Currently there is only one service provider for Happy Life Call Centre for service delivery, therefore another qualified service provider will be recruited to offer services specific to youth.