An Introduction to the Mission to Togo
Mr Tindandjoa Doguene, a farmer in Djangou in the Savanes region, had kept silent during the Self Assessment meeting. In contrast, many of his neighbours had spoken up, the women in particular. And that was new! But at the end of the meeting, Mr Tindandjoa Doguene stood up and told the assembly, “Now I have understood that malaria is brought by mosquitoes. Therefore I will sell my cock and buy a bednet.”
Up until now, Mr Tindandjoa and many of his fellow countrymen thought that malaria was caused by the heat of the sun, or for the severe cases, some curse sent by hostile neighbours. Of course, the village had received more scientific information, but the message has not been well understood. In 2004, 866,000 insecticide treated bednets had been distributed during an impressive national campaign financed by the Canadian Red Cross (4.5 billion CFA francs).
The Togolese Red Cross had been on the front line of this campaign with its 15,000 volunteers. But as Mr Norbert Paniak, President of The Togolese Red Cross put it, “It is one thing to distribute bednets, and another to use them. In the struggle against malaria, it is most important for people to be aware of the problem, for them to acknowledge the problem and for them then to take charge of it.”
In 2004, this was not always the case. Mr Lucien Lokou, Red Cross agent in Soutouboua remembers, ”Some people were reluctant. They complained about how hot it was under the bednet, and some would even say that lying under a bednet made them feel as if they were “in a coffin”. “There we were,” says Mr Lucien Lokou, “with our volunteers, but our messages were not really heard, and those broadcast by the media had little effect."
The Togolese Red Cross was anxious to maximise the impact of this campaign. And so it launched a follow-up operation called “Keep up”. Its purpose was to check that the bednets were being used, and also that the population was implementing all of the actions to prevent and to cure malaria.
But how could this be done successfully?
Blaise Toulassi Sedoh, National Coordinator of the Red Cross in charge of the HIV/AIDS and Malaria programme, and deputy national coordinator of the 2004 campaign, was convinced that community mobilisation was vital. He had experienced, for HIV/AIDS, the effectiveness of an approach based on the ability of the community to deal with this issue. This approach had been initiated by The Constellation for AIDS Competence, an NGO that worked in more than 20 countries. Its rigorous methodology, its tools, particularly the Self Assessment framework, had just been adapted to the struggle against malaria with the support of Roll Back Malaria. Blaise Sedoh had been one of the facilitators running the workshop in Mombasa where the methodology had been adapted for malaria.
Blaise was convinced that the Self Assessment tool was the perfect answer to the follow up concern of the 2004 campaign, and he had it integrated into the community mobilisation strategy of the Togolese Red Cross.
In January 2005, he trained 22 “district coaches” coming from all regions of the country. Each of them has the mission to transmit the good use of the Self Assessment tool to 30-40 “local coaches” in their district (a Red Cross local coach oversees the different activities of the Red Cross volunteers in his community), often together with local volunteers - and also to the innumerable Red Cross Clubs for Mothers who were to play a leading part in the campaign.
“From then on,” remembers Blaise, “we used the Self Assessment tool systematically, throughout the whole country. And the Malaria Competence approach became fully integrated into the Togolese Red Cross culture.
