Changing Behaviours & Care-Seeking Practices in the Grand Nord, North Kivu, DRC

On 30 March, a girl’s temperature is taken upon her arrival at the Government Secondary School in the city of Kenema, in Kenema District, where she and other teenagers have come to sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to continue their senior secondary education. The temperature screening is part of the strict safety protocols being implemented in all schools across the country, to minimize the risk of Ebola virus disease (EVD) transmission at school. Over 1,000 junior secondary schools opened beginning on 30 March for more than 275,200 students to sit for their Basic Education Certificate Examinations. In March/April 2015 in Sierra Leone, as schools across the country prepare to reopen after an eight month closure due to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) crisis, the Government, UNICEF and partners are working to ensure that children remain safe by reducing as much as possible the risk EVD transmission. Schools – which had remained closed across the country after the July-August break – are scheduled to reopen on 14 April, with some 1.8 million students expected to resume their studies. To support students’ return, UNICEF has facilitated the training of 9,000 teachers to implement safety protocols to minimize the risk of transmission at schools, including taking children’s temperatures when they arrive at school and making them wash their hands before entering the classroom. UNICEF is also supporting the distribution of hygiene materials and cleaning equipment to prepare school buildings and to reduce the chance of infections; and is providing 24,300 hand-washing stations (about three per school), as well as 1.8 million school kits and psychosocial support for students. UNICEF is also supporting social mobilization activities to raise awareness, and daily government emergency radio education programmes to allow children to continue learning at home during the Ebola crisis, and has distributed some 17,000 solar radios to children in rur