Soul Beat Malaria Extra - Issue #4

This issue of the Soul Beat Malaria Extra shares with you a variety of recent malaria news, resources, and initiatives that are using communication strategies to raise awareness about, and spark action to end this disease. Featured are: updates on hopeful developments such as diagnostic tests and a vaccine trial; resources such as a discussion guide for village-level health teams, a school toolkit, and an advocacy guide; and initiatives to fight malaria that use a wide variety of communication tools and strategies. Also featured is a blog that reports on efforts to promote healthier behaviours for malaria control through developing communication programmes based on evidence gathered through research. We hope you find these selections useful and invite to visit the Soul Beat Africa Malaria website, where you will find more resources. If you have not yet registered, we hope you will take the time to join us on the Malaria Online Social Network for knowledge sharing and upcoming discussion and exploration of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) for malaria prevention, control, and treatment in Africa.

This article by Matt McGrath, science reporter for the BBC World Service, reports on the expansion of a clinical trial of a new malaria vaccine following promising results in a preliminary study in Burkina Faso. As reported here, the trial was designed to test safety, but researchers found that vaccinated children had high levels of protection. A larger study is reportedly now planned to take place in Mali involving 800 children. According to the report, scientists involved say they are hopeful that a vaccine will ultimately be cheap to reproduce.

The results of the Burkina Faso trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

To read the full article, click here.

Photo credit: Flckr US Army Africa

A series of brief commentaries and editorials on key and emerging issues from leading practitioners of SBCC at the coal face of the struggle to end Malaria. Watch for excerpts in this newsletter and register on the Soul Beat: Malaria Social Network to join the authors in discussion and further exploration.

Published by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (CCP), this discussion guide is meant to be used together with the "Stop Malaria in Your Community" grain sack charts. It is designed to help facilitators hold group discussions with community members to help them understand malaria transmission, prevention, and treatment, as well as encourage them help stop malaria in their communities.

For each grain sack chart, the guide offers an introduction and a set of discussion questions that are designed to make the sessions interactive. The introduction also provides background information that the facilitator can use to start the discussion.

This toolkit shares practical information and experiences related to the control of malaria in schools, including technical and policy advice on malaria, as well as how countries can plan and implement school-based malaria interventions. Produced by the Partnership for Child Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, and The World Bank, the toolkit offers useful links and technical resources. The toolkit was designed to help policymakers, health professionals, educationalists, researchers, donors, and non-governmental organisations to implement country-led plans for school malaria programmes.

According to the author, the toolkit will help users understand why the education sector should respond to malaria, the benefits of controlling malaria in schools, and the appropriate malaria interventions which can be delivered through schools. It also includes examples of promising practice at scale, highlights the key issues in developing a school malaria programme, explains how to formulate a national Malaria Control in Schools strategy, and explores how to design a malaria component of a wider school health programme.

This guide, published by Voices for a Malaria Free Future, is designed to help malaria advocates clearly understand the concept of advocacy and master the knowledge and skills required to successfully operate as effective malaria advocates. According to the guide, malaria is the leading cause of death among young African children, killing one child every 30 seconds. However, it can be effectively and inexpensively treated if programmes are properly resourced and implemented.

The guide is designed to provide basic information about malaria in Ghana, and gives practical examples of how some of the key concepts in advocacy are being used. It intends to help users think about what advocacy roles are best suited to their organisational or individual capacity and advises on formats that could be used to present advocacy messages.

The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) seeks to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 focus countries in Africa by expanding coverage of effective malaria prevention and treatment measures to the most vulnerable populations: pregnant women and children under five years of age. To access communication materials developed by USAID/PMI partners go to the PMI Special Collection on C-Hub. C-Hub is a service of C-Change that provides a place to find and share communication materials on development.

Launched in April 2011, PataPata is a radio programme designed to inform and encourage children in Tanzania aged 6-12 to become involved in the fight against malaria. The radio drama, which follows the adventures of Kinara, Maua, and Annie Anopheles as they learn about malaria, comprises 44 10-minute episodes, which are being broadcast on 4 national and 6 regional radio stations across Tanzania. The goal of the programme is to change perceptions about malaria as an unpreventable fact of life with little reason for individuals to take preventative actions, and build a culture that supports the country's Malaria Haikubaliki (ìMalaria is not acceptable) campaign. PataPata was developed as part of the Communication and Malaria Initiative in Tanzania (COMMIT), a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and President's Malaria Initiative (PMI)-funded project that is led by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP).

Developed by Malaria Foundation International (MFI), this educational programme is designed to engage students around the world in joining together to understand and fight malaria. The SLAM project promotes malaria awareness, education, and advocacy efforts among children, and works to broaden their horizons through information and communication technologies (ICTs) and in-person, community-based, youth-generated initiatives. In malaria-endemic regions of the world, this project uses a variety of interpersonal communication approaches in an effort to build relationships and opportunities for children who are familiar with the challenges of this disease - while at the same time sensitising children from countries without malaria to the devastation caused by malaria.

In April 2011, shortly after World Malaria Day, United Against Malaria (UAM) launched an SMS (text message) campaign in Uganda designed to raise awareness about malaria, and raise funds for the purchase and distribution of bed nets to malaria endemic areas. Subscribers received text messages with information about malaria, and were invited reply with an SMS to make a donation.

The Soul Beat Malaria Extra e-magazine, supported by PMI and C-Change and implemented by Soul Beat Africa, is an e-magazine that highlights social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) case studies, reports, analyses, and resources related to Malaria. Please encourage your colleagues and friends to subscribe here and select Malaria under Development Issues.

This blog by United Against Malaria reports on efforts by the Ministry of Health in Angola to scale up malaria control activities with the expansion of net distribution as well as communication activities for behaviour change to encourage the use of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets. The blog reports on efforts to promote healthier behaviours for malaria control through developing communication programmes based on evidence gathered through research.

To read the full blog, click here.

A mother carries home LLINs for her family following a net distribution campaign. Source: PSI/Angola

Register to participate
If you are active on or interested in effective malaria action please join the Soul Beat: Malaria Social Network

Share your knowledge
Do you have programme descriptions, strategic planning documents, training manuals or other resources you think are useful to other working on SBCC and Malaria? If you do please go to the knowledge sharing area of Soul Beat Africa's Malaria Network where, once you've registered, you can upload the resources you want to share.

This publication is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Agreement No. GPO-A-00-07-00004-00. The contents are the responsibility of The Communication Initiative and the C-Change project, managed by FHI360, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.