Planning and Conducting Well Being Days

The Wellbeing Day model has derived from the Station Days methodology. Station Day is a child and parent-friendly and participatory day-long monitoring and evaluation field activity to assist project staff, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their caregivers to appreciate critical issues affecting the children’s lives and to understand the impact of the project.

Station Days was a concept originally piloted by Tsungirirai Welfare Organization in 2003 in Zimbabwe. Tsungirirai (which means persevere and have courage) is a community-based organization serving children in peri-urban and rural areas of Norton, Zimbabwe. CRS Zimbabwe began working with the organization as part of its Support To Replicable Innovative, Village/community Efforts (STRIVE) project. STRIVE originally received funding from USAID, and is now funded by UNICEF. Through information-sharing and exchange visits, other CRS Zimbabwe partners have adopted Station Days as a methodology, including a partner that works on livelihoods security projects. Later, Station Days was adapted by the MOVE (Mountain Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s Empowerment) and HEAR ME (HIV Education for Adolescents Response Motivation and Empowerment) projects implemented by CRS Lesotho in 2007.