LUCSA/ELCA Regional Malaria Program: Update and Future Perspective

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LUCSA/ELCA Regional Malaria Program Update and
Future Perspective

• Prepared by
• Lucas Owuor-Omondi

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Goal

• The overall goal of the LUCSA/ELCA Regional
  Malaria Program is to contribute to the reduction
  of morbidity and mortality due to malaria,
  particularly among pregnant women and children
  under- five as well as among vulnerable
  population groups.

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Objective

• To empower congregations and surrounding
  communities to reduce the risk and vulnerability
  to malaria infection and to alleviate the impact
  of the disease and disease condition on the
  affected households, with a strong focus on
  children under five years, pregnant women and the
  disadvantaged from the hard to reach areas.

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Coverage

• The five targeted countries are Angola, Malawi,
  Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

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Coverage (e.g.) - Mozambique

• 146 Congregations, 146 Congregational
  Development Committees (CDCs), 14 Parish
  Development Committees (PDC), 3 (three)
  District Development Committees (DDC), 730
  Activists, 85 Clinical Officers/Nurses, 135
  Traditional Health Workers, 146 Youth groups and
  146 Women groups.

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Coverage - Mozambique

• The primary beneficiaries are the inhabitant of
  the 3 proposed areas covered by the Program
  12.924 people (7.237 women- 56)
• The secondary beneficiaries are the neighboring
  populations of the targeted districts in Nampula,
  Cabo Delgado, Tete, Zambezia, Manica, Sofala,
  Gaza and Maputo City.

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LUCSA/ELCA Regional Malaria Program An
Opportunity

• The Program presents an opportunity to LUCSA to
  contribute to the strengthening of the
  organizational and development capacity of member
  churches with a view to enhancing their
  efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness to
  enable them to address the problem of malaria and
  related needs of the congregations and
  surrounding communities.

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Strategic Priorities Pillars

• Institutional Capacity Building
• Malaria prevention, control and management
• Treatment
• Sustainable Livelihood

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Collaboration and Partnership Zambia

• Zambia by far has demonstrated high level of
  networking between partners with more faith being
  given to the church. A lot of responsibilities
  have been put the church as a result of
  partnership created e.g. Ministry of Health,
  National HIV and AIDS, Human Rights Commission

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• Most Significant Changes

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Most Significant Changes

• The malaria campaign programme has really
  helped. There has been notable reduction in the
  burden of the disease in the area. Before the
  program started, people only slept in the
  mosquito nets during rainy seasons when
  mosquitoes are plenty but now we all sleep under
  the mosquito nets throughout the year and this
  has reduced the number of malaria cases in our
  village. For example my son will never go to
  sleep not until he is covered with a mosquito
  net. We now know how to protect ourselves and we
  are not spending on medicines any more. (A
  mother in Simaubi Zambia)

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Most significant Changes (cont..)

• This is a very good programme please may the
  Lord bless you for bringing this programme here.
  We thank the Lutheran church for bringing VCT to
  our area. This is the first time we are having
  something like this. Today we have had people to
  teach about public Health, Reproductive health,
  TB and HIV/AIDS. We thank the Project Coordinator
  for bringing these people to this area especially
  the people who have talked about reproductive
  health. We have a problem here that children
  start having babies when they are still young
  instead of concentrating on education, because of
  this we have a lot of girls who are school
  dropouts in this area. An Elder in Mulimba -
  Zambia

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Most Significant Changes (Cont..)

• It is very encouraging to see our headman
  calling for Malaria sensitisation meetings at his
  home. Since the time our headman came from the
  training workshop which was conducted by the
  ELCZa/LECA Malaria campaign programme in Zambezi
  so far he has held about three Malaria Campaign
  meetings. He is also involved in the teaching and
  he tells us that he doesnt want to see anyone in
  his village die of malaria because its a disease
  that is curable, treatable and preventable. (An
  Elder in Dipalata Congregation Zambia)

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Most Significant Changes (Contd..)

• I have learned not to wait till it is late to
  take a sick person for testing and treatment
  within 24 hours!
• Joaquim Cardoso (33) married with 5 children, an
  Activista in Namacaua - Namina in Mozambique
  recalls with a lot sadness and pain, how his own
  child died of malaria. Speaking in his native
  language Emakua, Senhor Joaquim recognizes the
  seriousness of Malaria as a deadly disease by
  recalling the title of a song sung by the
  activists during the door-door sensitizations
  campaigns, households visits - Malariayala
  Nikassope!, which they use to drive the point
  home that malaria is preventable

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Some Statistics Mozambique

• The Clinic at Namina town in Nampula Province in
  Mozambique reports The cases of malaria have
  significantly reduced during the first semester
  2012 as compared to the same period last year
  (2011), from 1, 982 cases to 1,129 diagnosed
  cases respectively! This represents a 43
  decrease in malaria cases from one year to the
  next. (Litos Manuel, General Medical Technician,
  Namina)

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Some statistics Zambia

• 1,099 church, community and traditional leaders
  were trained and 6,300 information, education and
  campaign materials on malaria specific behavior
  change were distributed.
• 4 open clinics were conducted and 2,031 with
  symptoms of malaria were tested

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Some Statistics Zambia (cont..)

• Out of the 1,484 who tested positive during the
  four open clinics were treated.

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Some Statistics Zambia (contd..)

• Between Jan-Sept 2012 the malaria livelihood
  program managed to reach a total of five hundred
  and nine people (509) 264 males and 245 females
  in 12 Villages covered by the program.

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Some Statistics Zimbabwe

• 58 awareness sessions were carried out by Malaria
  Focal Persons, from January June , or about one
  session every three days.
• 3,107 people were reached through training
  programs on signs and symptoms of malaria,
  prevention methods, environmental management and
  treatment.

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Some Statistics Zimbabwe (cont..)

• 692 community members were trained in malaria
  treatment methods including Rapid Diagnostic
  Testing, Intermittent Preventive Treatment and
  early treatment-seeking behaviors

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Mozambique Angola Malawi Zambia Zimbabwe
HH with mosquito nets 57 37 67.3 70.4 41
HH with at least one ITN 28.4 35 56.8 64 28.8
of children lt5 years who slept under an ITN a night before the interview 17.5 26 39.4 50 30.3
of pregnant women who slept under an ITN the night before the interview 19.5 35.2 47.7 9.7
of women who during the pregnancy that occurred in the last two years took two or more doses of SP/Fansider 18.6 18 55 70.2
of children lt5 years who had fever during two weeks preceding the interview 13.4 34 34.5 34.1
of children lt5 years who had fever in the last two weeks preceding the interview and who took antimalarial either within 24 or 48 hours 22.2 16.4 28 18.7
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The Challenge

• It is arguably unrealistic to suggest that
  malaria can be eradicated from much of tropical
  Africa, but it is entirely reasonable to assume
  that the burden can be reduced such that malaria
  is no longer considered a priority public health
  problem.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

• LUCSA will utilize the following FIVE core
  indicators as a basis for measuring change
  brought about by the Program
• Reduction in malaria morbidity and mortality.
• Improvement in target households and communities
  capacity to prevent, control and manage the
  disease.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

• 3. Organizational Development and Systems
  Strengthening of member churches to ensure
  upward and downward accountability effective
  response to emerging issues timely and quality
  services effective resource mobilization,
  management and control and documentation and
  sharing of best practices.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

• 4. Linkages between the Regional Malaria Program
  and other sectors of government and other key
  actors.
• 5. Technical support and partnership building.

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A Call for Partnership

• The will to sustain the gains we have made in
  malaria must come not only from politicians, but
  from affected communities. If communities can
  know the true burden of malaria and can see the
  results of prevention and control efforts, then
  the will to eliminate and ultimately eradicate
  malaria will never fade.
• Dr Margaret Chan, Director-, General WHO

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Thank You !