English

1. 1
Summary
Consultative, Educational and Celebrative Meeting
“Nothing Like Iron” Campaign
Galleria-Beirut, Dec. 20 2010
ANERA, MAP UK, UNRWA and UNICEF organized this 7 hours
meeting that was conducted at Galleria hotel in Beirut on 20 Dec.
2010. ANERA CHC team prepared the agenda and facilitated the
meeting. MAP UK funded the costs.
81 people from UNRWA (30, 37%), PRCS (15, 18.5%), BAS (2,
2.5%), GUPW (3, 5%), NABA’A (3, 5%), PARD (4, 5%), PWHO (4,

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5%), MAP UK (12, 13%), ANERA (6, 7%) and independent (2, 2.5%)
participated in the meeting. The majority of participants were
women (94%) working as nurses, midwives and social workers.
Their areas of work included: the North (12, 7%), Beirut (27, 33%),
Beka’a (5, 6%), Saida (30, 37%), and Tyre (7, 9%).
The meeting succeeded in meeting its objectives of: Introducing
participants to each other and exploring possibilities of
cooperation; Reviewing the list of “Best Practices” to address Iron
Deficiency Anemia; Commenting on the reporting tools including
the pretesting and post-testing tools; Exchanging implementation
ideas through activities, parade, exhibition, stands, sketches,
songs, arts, games etc.

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The following is the agenda that was implemented:
Time Activities
8:00-9:30 am  Welcome,
 Registration,
 Hospitality,
 Preparing the areas stands
9:30-12:00 am  Introduction,
 Forming groups,
 Best practices,
 Support tools,
 Pre and Post testing tools
12:00-12:10  New year celebration
12:10-2:00 pm  Parade,
 The market: stands,
 Voting for the best stand and
costumes,
 Working groups by areas,
 Moments of fame,
 Closure
2:00-3:00 pm  Lunch
The meeting provided opportunities to distribute the Campaign
guide, drafts of reporting tools and Pre and post-testing tools,
CHC materials, the newly printed Yumie Numie booklet, different
CHC materials, materials from Palestine on iron deficiency anemia
(the Maram project), agendas per areas, iron deficiency anemia
flyers and the audio-CD: songs for health and happiness etc.

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The following are comments of the participants about the
meeting (source: written evaluation at the end of the meeting):
What we liked most about this meeting:
Participants liked most the interactive approach of the meeting
that allowed exchanging experiences, active participation and
learning through smooth, fun and simple method.

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They also valued mixing the elements of competition,
entertainment and learning. They appreciated the varieties of
organizations from the different areas and the variety of ideas and
activities that were exchanged.
“We love the ambiance of festivities that breaks through the
boring atmospheres of the usual lectures, we also appreciate that
this important theme is being addressed with fun, action and
dynamism” participants reported. The sketch, the exhibit and the
parade were particularly praised.

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Learning new ideas:
Participants confirmed that the meeting helped them network
with several groups in the collective campaign: “Nothing Like
Iron”. They learnt about the best practices, changing behaviors
and applied new activities that they can use in their own set-ups.
If we were to organize similar events, what like to enhance and
what we like to change:
Participants would love to repeat the style of the meeting that
included working in small groups and organizing fun and
interactive activities. They recommended that people should not
repeat what others have said in order to save time and that they
would prefer to be notified at an earlier stage in order to come
better prepared. They stressed the value of cooperation,
coordination and follow up.
What we like to see in the family magazine:
Information on nutritional iron deficiency anemia, foods that are
rich in iron and vitamin C, iron rich recipes that are popular, new,
and easy to prepare; focus on breastfeeding and complementary
feeding; games such as puzzles, cross-words; and experiences
from the field.
Our recommendations to ourselves to make the Campaign
successful:
“We vow ourselves and each other to work on the success of this
campaign”, participants reported. Monthly regular feedback

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about benefits and obstacles that face us in our work; Conducting
workshops and engaging local communities; Well prepared,
cooperation and networking and understanding the different
perspectives.
Our recommendations to our organizations:
Moral and financial support and motivation; Providing all
materials needed and facilitating networking among workers;
Continuity of the work; Collective work and working together;
Implement and follow up; Cooperation and coordination among
each other; Continuous cooperation and ongoing evaluation of
the communication process among institutions; and
complementing each other.
Our recommendations to UNRWA to make the Campaign
successful:
Providing support of all kinds to the Campaign including
pamphlets, information, materials, booklets and DVDs; Follow up
and supporting mothers with food items as there are lots of
families who are very poor; Cooperation without barriers;
Working with NGOs and conducting more research that serve all
in order to know the realistic problems that face beneficiaries;
and support, help and financial aid.
Our recommendations to international NGOs to make the
Campaign successful:
Continuous evaluation in order to learn from the experience and
replicate it; Financial and moral support to the Palestinian people;

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Cooperation among each other and work against advocacy for
harmful foods; Funding more Campaigns and developing useful
materials to use with communities such as Zaka wa Dawa (Smart
Use of Medicine); and Sponsoring and organizing similar activities
and meetings.
From the heart:
“We loved this workshop lots. Thank you. We have broken
obstacles between us. Please keep it going. Special thanks to Dr.
May Haddad and the team who made this event successful. It has
been a wonderful day”.
“In our names all of us: we thank the efforts to make this event
successful and we hope to be integrated in an iron chain that is
unbreakable in order to fight iron deficiency anemia and make the
Campaign” Nothing Like Iron” most successful”.
Participants
The
North
Beirut Baalbeck
area
Saida
area
Tyre
area
Total
UNRWA 4 10 3 10 3 30
PRCS 2 2 2 6 3 15
BAS 2 2

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GUPW 3 3
NABA’A 2 1 3
PARD 4 4
PWHO 4 4
MAP-UK 4 4 4 12
ANERA 6 6
Other 1 1 2
Total 12 27 5 30 7 81