The collaboration between Chitambo District Health Office (DHO) and MAM@Scale has been very effective, not only in the treatment of severe malaria at community level using rectal artesunate, a pre-referral drug, but also developing strong preventative measures against COVID-19 in this transit town.
MAM@Scale uses a strong community engagement approach by establishing and strengthening community systems to uplift health standards at community level. It is an inclusive approach that engages people at all levels, from traditional leadership to members of the community. People who volunteer to work for the community are trained in health education and become the providers of basic health services at community level. Food banks and savings schemes are formed in the communities to fight affordability barriers. This has not only raised demand for health services in the facilities that MAM@Scale is supporting in Chitambo district, but it made it much easier to put up preventative measures against COVID-19.
Click below to read the full case study.
Fwanta is a community in the Kabamba area of Serenje District, Zambia. In the past, many people in Fwanta who developed medical complications, be it maternal or malarial related, died because people wrongly interpreted the danger signs.
A turning point happened when MAMaZ Against Malaria at Scale (MAM@Scale) began working with this community and the Kabamba Rural Health Centre. They trained Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) on the management of severe malaria at community level through the administering of a Rectal Artesunate Suppository (RAS). MAM@Scale also provided an emergency transport system (ETS), in the form of a bicycle ambulance, to Fwanta. Baron Mupeta was one of the people selected to be trained as an ETS rider.
Click below to read Baron’s testimonial.
Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) are the backbone of the health system in rural Zambia, where they provide invaluable health advice to their communities, which are located prohibitively far from health facilities. Before the pandemic, CHVs were a vital part of our MAM at Scale programme, combatting malaria in their community by educating families on the danger signs of severe malaria and administering RAS (rectal artesunate suppositories), a pre-treatment for children with suspected severe malaria.
CHVs are a trusted voice in their communities, so it was natural that they would form the cornerstone of MAM at Scale’s COVID-19 response. To meet the challenges of the pandemic, the MAM at Scale team has orientated nine Community Facilitators on COVID-19, who have in turn trained 1,379 CHVs, who will help keep their communities safe during the pandemic.
Brenda Kunda is a Community Facilitator with MAM at Scale. A tragic experience in Brenda’s life eventually led to a positive change, not only for her, but for her family and her entire community.
Click below to read Brenda’s story.
2020 marked the start of the Decade of Action on Sustainable Development, which aims to accelerate progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, this year also saw the emergence of a new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, which has had devastating effects on health systems globally and has the potential to put a halt to much of the progress made against specific Goals. This global pandemic also poses a serious threat to the broader social, economic, and political security of entire populations worldwide, disproportionately impacting communities in low-income countries and resource-constrained settings.
In the wake of the pandemic, the MAM@Scale programme had to quickly and effectively adapt in order to tackle the spread of COVID-19 while continuing the fight against severe malaria as well as other lifesaving work to enhance maternal health outcomes. Thanks to funding from the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, together with Grand Challenges Canada and MMV, we were able to integrate COVID-19 prevention into our work and support the government of Zambia’s COVID-19 response.
Click below to read the full article.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, many have faced unprecedented challenges around the world. Like many organisations, Transaid has been adapting and finding new ways of working, and making sure that all staff, consultants and volunteers are protected and safe. Consequently, Transaid has been working to introduce new protocols and ways of working for our colleagues in the field.
As part of this, Transaid have been focusing on awareness raising, establishing hand washing stations and topping up the community food banks as part of the preparedness planning in the MAM@Scale intervention sites in Zambia. This also included the development of materials aimed at supporting awareness raising activities, and to ensure that the people on the frontline of project operations, as well as the people they are supporting, are safe and protected at all times.
Please click below to view the updated rectal artesunate (RAS) protocols for Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), in English, Chewa, Senga, and Luvale.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many have faced unprecedented challenges around the world. Like many organisations, Transaid has been adapting and finding new ways of working, and making sure that all staff, consultants and volunteers are protected and safe. Consequently, Transaid has been working to introduce new protocols and ways of working for our colleagues in the field.
As part of this, Transaid have been focusing on awareness raising, establishing hand washing stations and topping up the community food banks as part of the preparedness planning in the MAM@Scale intervention sites in Zambia. This also included the development of materials aimed at supporting awareness raising activities, and to ensure that the people on the frontline of project operations, as well as the people they are supporting, are safe and protected at all times.
Please click below to see the “Signs, Symptoms and Response” Posters in English, Bemba, Chewa, Senga, and Luvale.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many have faced unprecedented challenges around the world. Like many organisations, Transaid has been adapting and finding new ways of working, and making sure that all staff, consultants and volunteers are protected and safe. Consequently, Transaid has been working to introduce new protocols and ways of working for our colleagues in the field.
As part of this, Transaid have been focusing on awareness raising, establishing hand washing stations and topping up the community food banks as part of the preparedness planning in the MAM@Scale intervention sites in Zambia. This also included the development of materials aimed at supporting awareness raising activities, and to ensure that the people on the frontline of project operations, as well as the people they are supporting, are safe and protected at all times.
Please click below to see the “COVID-19 Prevention Poster”, in English, Bemba, Chewa, Senga, and Luvale.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many have faced unprecedented challenges around the world. Like many organisations, Transaid has been adapting and finding new ways of working, and making sure that all staff, consultants and volunteers are protected and safe. Consequently, Transaid has been working to introduce new protocols and ways of working for our colleagues in the field.
As part of this, Transaid have been focusing on awareness raising, establishing hand washing stations and topping up the community food banks as part of the preparedness planning in the MAM@Scale intervention sites in Zambia. This also included the development of materials aimed at supporting awareness raising activities, and to ensure that the people on the frontline of project operations, as well as the people they are supporting, are safe and protected at all times.
Please click below to see the Revised ETS Rider Protocol During COVID-19 Pandemic, in both English and Senga.
This brief provides key considerations for engaging communities on COVID-19 and tips for how to engage where there are movement restrictions and physical distancing measures in place, particularly in low-resource settings. It is designed for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies, government agencies, and other humanitarian and implementing actors working on health promotion, risk communication, and community engagement for COVID-19.
This document is an initiative of the GOARN Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Coordination Working Group co-led by UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). It was developed jointly by the READY initiative [funded by USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Save the Children, UNICEF, UNICEF’s Social Science Analysis Cell (CASS), IFRC, WHO, CORE Group, Social Science in Humanitarian Action (SSHAP), Anthrologica, United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), CARE International, Internews, DAI, Community Health Impact Coalition, BBC Media Action, Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), World Food Programme, and Catholic Relief Services, with additional input from public health consultant Sanchika Gupta. This document will be updated periodically as new guidance and practices are developed.
Click below to read the full brief.
Malaria incidence rates among children are very high in many rural districts of Zambia. Every year, many children die when their malaria progresses to severe malaria because they have not received appropriate or timely treatment. Many of these deaths could be avoided if communities were effectively mobilised around a child health agenda and if WHO-approved rectal artesunate (RAS) – a life-saving pre-referral treatment – were readily available at community level.
Children also suffer and sometimes lose their lives because of delayed identification of other common childhood illnesses. These include severe diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection (ARI). Gaps in knowledge of the danger signs for all these illnesses, and household and community barriers and delays that prevent prompt referral of children are responsible.
This training manual outlines a two-part training approach that can be used to:
– Train selected Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to recognise and administer severe malaria in young children using rectal artesunate (RAS)
– Train communities to respond promptly and appropriately to severe malaria, and to other common childhood illnesses
Increasing children’s access to life-saving treatment for severe malaria and other common childhood illnesses requires community members who can identify danger signs and know how to respond, and CHVs who can support and refer patients to the health facility. Both groups need to be trained.
Please click below to read the full training manual.
Emergency Transport Schemes (ETS) offer an affordable means of transportation for health emergencies and patient referrals to health facilities, in communities where no formal transport services exist, or where affordable means of transportation lack.
This training manual is intended for trainers who are conducting training on ETS, and introducing bicycles as a solution for community based transport to help expecting mothers and under 5 children with severe malaria in accessing health care when in labour and six weeks after child birth. The topics in this manual have been logically arranged to help guide the trainer follow an approach which aims to maximise the impact of the ETS introduction through clear messaging and instruction.
The purpose of the ETS training is to develop the knowledge and skills of the community volunteer ETS riders so that they can professionally, safely, actively and effectively contribute to reducing the delay on maternal emergencies and children with severe malaria faced in accessing transportation. This manual acts as a learning tool and reference to be used in conducting training geared towards achieving this. It contains the course layout, proposed timings and gives the trainer comprehensive guidance on critical issues relating to the successful operation of a community managed ETS. It is not meant as a document for general distribution among all ETS volunteer riders, rather for trainers.
Please click below to read the full guide.
This report is a study on empowerment outcomes undertaken on behalf of the MAMaZ Against Malaria At Scale project (MAM@Scale). The study looked at the extent to which women and girls in the project’s intervention sites had transitioned from a situation where they had limited power to one where they could challenge power inequalities and access new opportunities for development.
The study was undertaken in December 2019. This was an internally commissioned study, designed and led by a MAM@Scale Senior Technical Adviser who worked alongside the project’s technical team in the project’s two core intervention districts: Chitambo and Serenje in Central Province.
In the project intervention sites a number of gender empowerment-related gains were evident. The extent of change varied depending on the length of time trained CHVs and ETS riders had been active in the community.
The seven ‘gender-smart’ strategies that comprise MAM@Scale’s gender empowerment approach were integral to driving the empowerment gains achieved by the project. There are lessons here for other interventions wishing to achieve empowerment-related outcomes that extend beyond health.
Please click below to read the full report.