Official Closing of successful Malaria Project

On Friday 23, ADRA STP held the official closing ceremony of the Project: “Social Marketing of ITN’s for Sao Tome and Principe”.
This ceremony was officially opened by R. Barrie Walkley, Ambassador of the United Stated of America to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe, and closed by the Minister of Health, Arlindo Carvalho. Both interventions focused on the crucial role the use of mosquito nets have in the fight against Malaria and the importance this intervention had in the reduction of Malaria cases in the country.
The main project activities was the subsidized distribution of 22500 Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets and 31000 impregnation kits for the existing non insecticide treated nets, this distribution was made trough a commercial network of over 40 outlets covering the all country, and in 6 of the Public Health network 7 districts.
The project also educated on the higher risk groups and protective behaviors against malaria. Some of the methods used were: dramatized presentations in over 72 communities, community workshops in over 120 communities, and workshops for specific professional groups every two months for over 2 years, the production of thousands of informative posters, leaflets, booklets, bumper stickers, and mass media campaigns in the radio and TV.
The more striking results of the final evaluation survey, showed that beside the significant increase in knowledge on the importance of using Insecticidal nets and of the higher risk groups concerning malaria, the program was able to put mosquito nets in 52% of the households in the country and making 92% of the population informed on the importance of the use of Mosquito Nets and informed of the certified Long Lasting Mosquito net used by the program.
During this program ADRA STP was the local implementing organization partnered with PSI (http://www.psi.org/) and worked in close collaboration with the CNE (Ministry of Health Malaria Program). This project was funded by the United States Department of State through its Embassy in Libreville.

For more pictures of this project go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/adrast/SocialMarketingLongLastingInsecticidalNetsFightingMalaria