ACAM introduces Sanofi-aventis to the realities of Malaria programming in the COMMUNITIES
May 23, 2010
After discussions between ACAM’s director and Sanofi-aventis staff, both in Washington DC and Nairobi Kenya, it was agreed that ACAM would undertake a field operation in Usalama, a village of over 6000 population with a history of remarkable success in spearheading a community-based effort to bring clean water to their dispersed households. The community accomplished this with technical support from the AMREF-Kenya country office and financial help from a small NGO located in New York City, known as Mwikali’s Gift. Now the community wanted to address their next major health priority: the eradication of malaria.
The objective for Sanofi-aventis was to assist their organization to better partner with communities to develop and sustain effective malaria prevention and control activities. Already Sanofi-aventis had undertaken the development of educational materials for this purpose; they understood that these materials alone could not be readily adapted by communities in order to create effective malaria activities in their local level. The opportunity to interact with several groups of residents from Usalama, provided by the NGO, Mwikali’s Gift, allowed for direct dialogue regarding the needs, current level of understanding of malaria program interventions, and their current access to these life-saving malaria program options in the context of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP).
From March 9-12, 2010, the team interacted in the field with local AMREF staff, together with the Usalama Project director, who facilitated organizing 186 enthusiastic community participants, who had had previous experience with their successful water and sanitation project. This greatly facilitated their ability to set forth a designated Task Force to move the malaria program forward and to create a shared vision for a MALARIA-FREE Usalama. It was soon learned that the current access to LLINs for malaria prevention and ACT for treatment, both interventions promoted by the NMCP policies, was non-existent.
In follow-up discussions at the Kibwezi Health Center (the closest govt. health facility to Usalama), it was confirmed that LLINs had been out of stock for several weeks, and that no pediatric ACT dosage was available due to unfilled orders from KEMSA, the Kenya Medical Services Agency. This effort did not attempt to investigate causality of these shortfalls, but rather defines the current situational dilemma and offered a plan for “strategic partnering” that was then discussed with the Usalama community leadership for incorporation by their Task Force.
Finally, the consultant’s team prepared a list of recommendations for consideration by Sanofi-aventis in their efforts to improve communications with communities, the “Last Mile Barrier”], an analogy borrowed from telecommunications professionals, to effective malaria programming. The experience found in Usalama is unfortunately common in many African settings, but today’s innovative communication technologies can help to promote change.