Encouraging Positive Practices for Improving Child Survival (EPPICS)

Encouraging Positive Practices for Improving Child Survival (EPPICS) documentation serves as a valuable resource for health professionals, including local and international organizations, working in rural developing communities. The guide, Adopting Healthy Maternal and Child Survivial Practices in Rural Ghana, presents eight CRS innovations used by EPPICS that led to statistically significant increases in maternal and child health indicators. Development workers can use this guide to increase their familiarity with these high-impact strategies and consider them for use in maternal, child, nutrition projects seeking sustainable improvement in maternal and child health in rural settings. The learning brief, Improving Maternal and Child Survival in Rural Ghana, provides a summary of the project's innovations and outcomes. 

EPPICS was funded by USAID and implemented in partnerships with the Ghana Health Services from October 1, 2011 - September 30, 2015. EPPICS’s two-pronged approach served to build strong links between health facilities and each of East Mamprusi’s 240 rural communities—relationships aiming to sustain project gains and provide a foundation for future investments. By implementing activities across East Mamprusi communities, EPPICS accomplished the following maternal and child health innovations. CRS Ghana is currently supporting the Ministry of Health to scale up some of these interventions in other districts of the northern region:

1. Partner engagement
2. Capacity building
3. Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) repositioned as link providers
4. Modified motorcycles as rural ambulance for emergency obstetric care (EOC)
5. Community giant score boards
6. Community pregnancy surveillance and education sessions
7. Mentoring health facility staff
8. Council of Champions