Positive Deviance/Hearth finds well-nourished children living among mostly malnourished children and holds them up as examples for the rest of the community.

Counterpart International (Counterpart) teaches the practices of the mothers of those well-nourished children to others in the community as a way to promote sound health and nutrition practices.
 
Through a dynamic process called the Positive Deviance Inquiry (PDI), Counterpart invites community members to discover practices and behaviors that contribute to better health outcomes for some children in the community. The program staff and community members then design an intervention to enable families with at-risk children to learn and practice these and other beneficial behaviors that have proven to be successful within that particular community context.
 
The Hearth component of PD/Hearth is the intervention strategy Counterpart relies on to educate families with at-risk children to practice healthy behaviors identified through the PDI technique. In Counterpart's India Child Survival project PD/Hearth has been used in community home settings as well as government run child day care centers. 
 
Hearth typically involves community workers that are trained to interact with families at least once a month to reinforce health practices, monitor health improvements and growth and intervene when a health event occurs. Monthly activities may include group lectures, nutrition and child care activities and cooking/meal preparation demonstrations. Individual home visits and counseling may be arranged as needed. While most PD/Hearth interventions are associated with nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, components related to food preparation and storage, hand washing and the sanitation of food preparation and dining areas are also conveyed successfully through the PD/Hearth model.

Photos: © Counterpart International.