The effectiveness of the Competence Approach in the struggle against Malaria

One of the most impressive results arising from the use of the Self Assessment is that women dare to speak in public, in a society where they do not traditionally take on this role.

“Before, only the men used to speak,” remembers Lamboni Kouami, Chair of the Red Cross Regional Committee of the Savanes Region. Women feared that they would be beaten up once back home, when their husbands would ask them, 'How did you dare to speak?'
Today they speak fearlessly before the chiefs! Believe me, God lit the way when we created the Clubs for Mothers.”

For Blaise Sedoh, this is a major change, “In our background, women had nearly no right to speak. The man would take all decisions. But when, during a Self Assessment, a woman understands the risks malaria means for her child, she enters into dialogue with her husband, 'Even if you do not care about me, care about your child'. And the husband starts doing what must be done ...”

Gladys Tay-Agbobli adds, “Today women express themselves, even when the chiefs are there. Five members of our Clubs for Mothers even ran to be representatives to the National Assembly recently. They were not elected but they have decided to run again.”

Of course, at first, this move of liberation caused some anxiety. A chief asked, “But if women sort things out themselves, won’t they claim to be chief some day?” He was told not to worry, “No, they are only concerned with health issues, nothing more.”

All the village heads that we met were congratulating themselves on the women’s dynamism. They were seeing for themselves the benefits of a clean environment and all the good practices that were preventing and curing malaria.

More generally speaking, we noticed a growing recognition of women’s role and dignity. Take, for example, this initiative of Adelassissi Aremu, Regional Red Cross Coordinator for the Savanes Region, “Here most women have no identity papers, not even a birth certificate. In order to give them a first formal identity, we created a card for members of the Clubs for Mothers.”