The effectiveness of the Competence Approach in the struggle against Malaria

To stimulate awareness and 'to awaken the intelligence that lies sleeping in communities' the Togolese Red Cross relies upon its entire network: Regional Coordonators who support the work of 15,000 volunteers spread all over the country.

The Togolese Red Cross relies equally strongly on 700 Clubs for Mothers that it has created. More than one half of them have completed their Self Assessment for Malaria and have now moved on to taking action.

Aziawo Kokou, district coach of Zio South (Maritime region), can’t stop singing the praises of the mothers club in Bolougan, “Before we started working together, women in this village thought that malaria was a matter of witchcraft. But once they understood what it really is, they decided to act. At the beginning, they didn’t have the money to buy bednets, so they started to cultivate maize and manioc in a community field, and eventually they bought bednets with the income from the sale of these products.”

In Gboto Assingamé (Maritime Region) the thirty women from the Club for Mothers welcomed us warmly one evening. They all held their copy of the Self Assessment framework. “It is our guide!” exclaimed Mrs Katerita. “We refer to it when we meet every Thursday. Children read it to their illiterate parents. It helps us to decide what we are going to do during the week to fight malaria.” And this is how they decided that each of them would contribute 40 CFA Francs every fortnight. With this money, they buy ten bednets every month.

Also, they systematically visit families to inform them and to convince them to use bednets. “Some sorcerers had forbidden their wives to sleep under the bednets, but this is over now."

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