School-Based Distribution Leads to Thousands of ITNs Distributed

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to Peter Kalenga (VL Zambia Senior ITN Advisor), Mkhululi Ngwenya (VL Zambia M&E Officer), and the VectorLink Zambia team for their support to the school-based distribution of ITNs to four districts in Eastern Province earlier this month.

In the span of the five-day campaign, more than 51,000 ITNs procured by PMI were distributed to pupils in Grades 1 and 4 across 426 schools in Chadiza, Chipangali, Katete, and Petauke districts.

Throughout activity planning and implementation, Peter led VL Zambia’s collaboration with the NMEP and Ministry of Education, as well as the PMI-funded PAMO+ project (which supported social behavior change activities) and GHSC-PSM project (which worked with third party logistics organizations to transport the nets from the central level to the schools). VectorLink provided support to the NMEP in the planning of the campaign, as well as orientation and cascade training sessions for MOH and MOE staff at provincial, district, zonal and school levels, and supervision during distribution.

On the data side, Mkhululi supported the NMEP in establishing a program within Zambia’s DHIS2-based Malaria Rapid Reporting system, allowing data from this school-based distribution to be viewed alongside data from other vector control interventions occurring in these districts. Data entry is currently ongoing.

Kudos to Peter, Mkhululi, and team for this true multisectoral collaborative effort!