Singer-songwriter, and Actress Mandy Moore Distributes Life-Saving Nets in the Central African Republic

Posted October 1, 2010

Listen to Mandy’s press teleconference from the Central African Republic here.

For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:
Negin Janati [email protected], 202.378.7858
Amy DiElsi [email protected], 202.887.9040

Bangui, Central African Republic (October 1, 2010)—Singer-songwriter, and actress Mandy Moore helped distribute thousands of long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets today to families in the Central African Republic (CAR), a country with one of the highest childhood death rates in the world and where malaria is a primary cause of illness and death. Moore, an Ambassador for PSI (Population Services International), traveled to Africa as part of a trip led by the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets™ campaign and PSI. The distribution of the life-saving, anti-malaria nets was made possible by Nothing But Nets supporters, and UNICEF, who together answered the UN’s urgent call to send a net to every family in CAR.

“It was an honor to join this trip to help distribute long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets to help prevent malaria which continues to kill nearly one million people every year,” said Mandy Moore. “This week I’ve met mothers who have lost children to malaria and worry daily about losing others. It is life-changing to be able to give them nets to protect their babies from malaria-carrying mosquitoes while they sleep.”

While in CAR, Moore met with families to learn about the devastating effects of malaria and the impact of mosquito nets. She helped the Ministry of Health and UN partners hang the nets and educate families about their proper use. Moore also participated in a local press event to raise awareness about the importance of using life-saving nets.

Moore has been active in the fight against malaria since she first saw its impact in South Sudan last year, on a trip to distribute nets with PSI—an experience that inspired her to raise awareness to end malaria deaths. “We’re on our way to reaching our goal of delivering a net to every family in CAR by the end of the year. Over the next week the partnership will deliver over 400,000 nets, nearly half the amount it will take to fill the gap. It takes just $10 to help—I hope more people will join us to make sure these families can sleep safely under an anti-malaria net. Together, we can cover the country.”

Nothing But Nets, a global, grassroots campaign to end malaria in Africa, has helped distribute more than 3.5 million long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets in 25 countries across Africa. With the help of Moore and PSI, covering the Central African Republic with mosquito nets will be a key step toward the global goal of ending malaria deaths by 2015.

“Malaria is preventable and we are making progress toward bringing an end to malaria deaths in the next five years,” said Adrianna Logalbo, Director of Nothing But Nets. “We thank Mandy Moore for joining us in the movement to end malaria and helping to raise awareness about the urgency of preventing this deadly disease.”

To learn more and to see photos from the trip, please visit www.NothingButNets.net. For hi-res photos, please contact Negin Janati at [email protected].

BACKGROUND
Malaria is endemic throughout the Central African Republic year-round and is the leading killer of children under the age of five. Nothing But Nets, in partnership with Mandy Moore, the Ministry of Health, PSI, the UN, and the Mentor Initiative, plans to deliver 837,000 long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets to ensure each family in the country is protected from malaria.

Every 45 seconds, a child dies from malaria — which is easily prevented through the use of an insecticide-treated net. The nets create a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of malaria transmissions occur, and are the most cost-effective method of preventing the spread of the disease. One long-lasting, insecticide-treated net can protect a family of four, and lasts up to three years. A net costs just $10 to purchase, deliver, and to educate the recipient on its proper use.

To date, Nothing But Nets has raised more than $32 million to distribute over 3.5 million nets to families throughout Africa. For more information, please visit www.NothingButNets.net.

About Nothing But Nets
Nothing But Nets is a global, grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Inspired by sports columnist Rick Reilly, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the campaign that was created by the United Nations Foundation in 2006. Founding campaign partners include the National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares, The people of The United Methodist Church, and Sports Illustrated. It only costs $10 to provide an insecticide-treated bed net that can prevent this deadly disease. Visit www.NothingButNets.net to send a net and save a life.

About PSI
PSI is a leading global health organization with programs targeting malaria, child survival, HIV, reproductive health and non-communicable disease. Working in partnership within the public and private sectors, and harnessing the power of the markets, PSI provides life-saving products, clinical services and behavior change communications that empower the world’s most vulnerable populations to lead healthier lives. staging.psi-2017.flywheelsites.com.

About the UN Foundation
The United Nations Foundation, a public charity was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. We build and implement public/private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and work to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. Through our campaigns and partnerships, we connect people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The campaigns we conduct reduce child mortality, empower women and girls, create a new energy future, secure peace and human rights, and promote technology innovation to improve health outcomes. These solutions are helping the UN advance the eight global targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

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Digitalizing contraceptive counseling to reach rural women and girls in Ethiopia

By: Fana Abay, Marketing and Communications Director, PSI Ethiopia

In rural Ethiopia, women and girls often face significant barriers in accessing healthcare facilities, which can be located hours away. Moreover, there is a prevailing stigma surrounding the use of contraception, with concerns about potential infertility or the perception of promiscuity. To address these challenges, the Smart Start initiative has emerged, linking financial well-being with family planning through clear and relatable messaging that addresses the immediate needs of young couples—planning for the lives and families they envision. Smart Start takes a community-based approach, utilizing a network of dedicated Navigators who engage with women in their localities. These Navigators provide counseling and refer interested clients to Health Extension Workers or healthcare providers within Marie Stopes International-operated clinics for comprehensive contraceptive counseling and services.

In a significant development, PSI Ethiopia has digitized the proven counseling messaging of Smart Start, expanding its reach to more adolescent girls, young women, and couples. This approach aligns with the priorities set by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MOH) and is made possible through funding from Global Affairs Canada. The interactive and engaging digital messaging has revolutionized counseling services, enabling clients to make informed and confident decisions regarding both their finances and contraceptive choices.

Clients who received counseling with the digital Smart Start tool reported a higher understanding of their options and were more likely to choose contraception (74 percent) compared to those counseled with the manual version of Smart Start (64 percent). Navigators also found the digital tool more effective in connecting with clients, leading to higher ratings for the quality of their counseling.

By December 2023, PSI Ethiopia, working in close collaboration with the MOH, aims to reach over 50 thousand new clients by leveraging the digital counseling tool offered by Smart Start. This innovative approach allows for greater accessibility and effectiveness in providing sexual and reproductive health services, contributing to improved reproductive health outcomes for women and couples across the country.

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Community health workers (CHWs) are critical lifelines in their communities. Ensuring they have the training, support, and equipment they need is essential to keep their communities safe from malaria, especially in the hardest to reach contexts.

For example, in Mali, access to formal health services remains challenging, with four in ten people living several miles from the nearest health center, all without reliable transportation or access. In 2009, the Ministry of Health adopted a community health strategy to reach this population. The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) Impact Malaria project, funded by USAID and led by PSI, supports the Ministry with CHW training and supervision to localize health services.

In 2022, 328 thousand malaria cases were recorded by CHWs); 6.5 thousand severe malaria cases were referred to health centers, according to the national health information system.

During that time, the PMI Impact Malaria project (IM) designed and supported two rounds of supportive supervision of 123 CHWs in their workplaces in the IM-supported regions of Kayes and Koulikoro. This included developing and digitizing a standardized supervision checklist; and developing a methodology for selecting which CHWs to visit. Once a long list of CHW sites had been determined as accessible to supervisors for a day trip (including security reasons), the supervisors telephoned the CHWs to check when they would be available to receive a visit [as being a CHW is not a full-time job, and certain times of the year they are busy with agricultural work (planting, harvesting) or supporting health campaigns like mosquito net distribution].

Supervisors directly observed how CHWs performed malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and administered artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). They recorded CHW performance using the digitized checklist, interviewed community members, reviewed records, and provided on-the-spot coaching. They also interviewed the CHWs and tried to resolve challenges they expressed, including with resupply of commodities or equipment immediately or soon afterwards.

Beyond the observed interactions with patients, supervisors heard from community members that they were pleased that CHWs were able to provide essential malaria services in the community. And the data shows the impact.

In IM-supported areas of Mali, 36% of CHWs in the first round were competent in performing the RDT, which rose to 53% in the second. 24% of CHWs in the first round compared to 38% in the second were competent in the treatment of fever cases and pre-referral counseling. Between both rounds, availability of ACT increased from 80 percent to 90 percent.

Supportive supervision with interviews and observations at sites improved the basic competencies of CHWs between the first and second rounds, and additional rounds will help to understand the longer-term programmatic benefits.

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“Rather than relying on traditional aid models that often distribute free or heavily subsidized sanitation products, market-based sanitation creates sustainable and affordable solutions, integrating market forces and supporting businesses to grow.”

— Michael Negash, Deputy Chief Party of T/WASH

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Here’s how we got there.

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— Martin Dale, Director, Digital Health and Monitoring, PSI

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In 2022, private clinics reported 1,440 malaria cases through the social media chatbots, while community mobilizers working with 475 private providers and community-based malaria volunteers reported more than 5,500 cases, leading to the detection of two local malaria outbreaks. Local health authorities were instantly notified, allowing them to take action to contain these surges in malaria transmission. During the same time, pharmacies referred 1,630 presumptive tuberculosis cases for confirmatory testing – a third of which were diagnosed as tuberculosis and enrolled into treatment programs.

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By: Anya Fedorova, Country Representative, PSI Angola

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Here’s what it looks like in practice.

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Kassai’s analytics system to follow learners’ success rate and to adjust the course content to learners’ performance and needs. Kassai analytics are integrated with DHIS2 – the Health Management Information System (HMIS) of Angolan MOH, to be able to link learners’ knowledge and performance with the health outcomes in the health facilities. The analytics track learners’ performance by course and gives visibility by health provider, health facility, municipality, and province. Each course has pre-and post-evaluation tests to track progress of learning, too.

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Singer-songwriter, and Actress Mandy Moore Distributes Life-Saving Nets in the Central African Republic

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Digitalizing contraceptive counseling to reach rural women and girls in Ethiopia

Building community health worker capacity to deliver malaria care

Taking a market-based approach to scale sanitation in Ethiopia

Promoting self-managed care like Self-testing and Self-Sampling

Using peer coaches to counter HIV stigma in South Africa

simplifying consumers’ journey to care in Vietnam

Engaging the private sector for disease surveillance in Myanmar

Training health workers in Angola

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