Success Stories
Partnering to Save Lives
Photo: USAID/Angola, A. Wind
Getting a net into the hands of a mother in Angola is not a simple undertaking. It involves numerous steps: the net needs to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, cleared through customs, distributed, and then used properly. These last two steps in the process are critical because nets must reach those who are most vulnerable to malaria: pregnant women and children under five. In Angola, as in many settings in sub-Saharan Africa, net distribution is complex and costly in part because of the difficulty involved in reaching people in remote areas where roads are poor and formal health facilities are lacking. Under these conditions, innovative distribution mechanisms are needed. Net distribution is often highly cost effective when it can be “piggy backed’ onto another existing public health intervention. In Angola, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is doing just that, in close collaboration with a number of other major partners.
In July 2006, an integrated nationwide campaign, known as ‘Viva a Vida com Saúde’ (Live Life with Health), was launched and reached more than 3.5 million children with measles and polio vaccinations, vitamin A, and de-worming medication. The PMI contributed 420,000 bed nets towards the campaign, in which a total of 826,000 nets were distributed to children under five in the seven most affected provinces of the country. The ExxonMobil Foundation was a key partner in the effort. Funds contributed by the Foundation helped increase the number of bed nets distributed and supported information, education and communication activities involving local activists who reached the Angolans in the targeted provinces, before, during, and after the campaign, with messages on the importance of using nets and how to best hang them. Preliminary results concerning net use among children under five are very encouraging. A survey conducted 4 weeks after the campaign, in seven provinces, showed that in the houses surveyed net ownership was over 90%, and in 68% of houses a child had slept under the net the previous night.
“What we are trying to do is not only help the people of Angola, but obviously work very closely with PMI to develop a model of engagement where the private sector can meaningfully tie into PMI countries and PMI projects.” – Dr. Steven Phil-lips, Medical Director.
The bed nets are making a difference. Susana Mukonda's story is representative of the reactions Angolans are having to the nets. She told a UNICEF worker that, "after we started using mosquito nets, my children, who are ages 10, 4 and 2, have not had to go to the doctor for malaria. Before, they had malaria often and bad. Today they use the nets every night for sleeping. Each - two in one bed - has his or her own net. Malaria is terrible; it is not a joke. The difference makes me very happy."
The goal of the Malaria Initiative is to reduce malaria deaths in Angola by 50 percent by September 2010 --and to make Susana Mukonda's story one that all Angolan mothers can tell.
