Boys in Benin attend the launch of
Africa’s first diarrhea treatment kit.
PSI, Abt Associates Treat Diarrheal Disease in Benin
COUTONOU, Benin, Sept 29, 2008 – USAID recently recognized PSI and Abt Associates for their work in the Point-of-Use Water Disinfection and Zinc Treatment (POUZN) project to prevent and treat diarrheal disease in Benin. PSI and Abt are distributing the ORASEL/Zinc kit, which contains two sachets of a new, orange-flavored, low-osmolarity oral rehydration salts (ORS) and ten tablets of pediatric zinc.
USAID called the kit “Africa’s first diarrhea treatment kit.” With help from the agency, the pilot program exists in six target areas to reach the majority of Benin’s population of children under five. The project has created diarrheal disease prevention education materials, tailored to local knowledge and literacy levels, to be used in community outreach activities and created a mass media campaign that promotes purchase and use of the kit for all childhood diarrheas.
PSI and Abt Associates are collaborating with Benin’s Health Ministry to train health center and community outreach workers and to distribute the kit at public health facilities. The project also is seeking to make the treatment available through the network of wholesalers and retailers in Benin.
The program was piloted with UNICEF funding in March 2008 in Zou and Collines, two regions with the highest diarrheal disease incidence rates in Benin.
PSI/DRC, ASF Spread Family Planning Messages Via Cell Phone Hotline
PSI/DRC and its partner Association de Santé Familiale (ASF) are using the country’s rapidly growing cell phone market to spread accurate information on family planning and contraceptive methods. The groups set up DRC’s first toll-free cell phone hotline – “Ligne Verte” – as part of their Family Planning Project (FPP).
In a recent USAID case study, the agency called the hotline the “first of its kind in the country,” adding that it “represents a true innovation in providing information to people who otherwise do not or cannot make use of other sources of facts and referrals for family planning.”
PSI’s Ligne Verte allows cell callers to speak confidentially to trained mobile educators in Kinshasa, to ask about contraceptive methods and side effects, and to get referrals to clinics or vendors in the callers’ community.
Callers made between 600 and over 2,000 calls a month to la Ligne Verte in 2007. PSI found that the volume of hotline calls (and location of callers) related to FPP’s information-education communication (IEC) and other activities on the ground; that a small but important number of calls were arriving even from provinces where PSI was not directly implementing the project; and that most callers wanted more information about, or wished to buy, contraceptives. The most surprising aspect of the hotline to date is that more than 80% of callers are men of reproductive age, according to the case study.
PSI and ASF advertised la Ligne Verte via mobile educators and posters at clinics and pharmacies across the DRC. The hotline number and hours are printed on items such as pocket calendars that are given away during FPP’s activities in eight DRC provinces. PSI experienced some technological difficulties in setting up and running the hotline, but the network provider VODACOM has been able to resolve technological problems as they arise.
