Category: Field Notes

Indoor residual spraying campaigns require several components to be successful. Vehicles are crucial as is the fuel necessary to run them as spray teams often need to travel considerable distances to reach the communities where spraying occurs. This week’s Fist Bump goes to the VectorLink Sierra Leone team for working around significant challenges such as a national fuel shortage to ensure the campaign would be a success.

During the 2022 spray campaign, VectorLink Sierra Leone targeted 160,919 structures over 24 operational days with a goal to protect an estimated population of 698,552 people. The VectorLink team did not let the challenge of a fuel shortage take over their efforts to make this campaign a successful one. In addition to contracting a major fuel provider to supply fuel during the campaign as much as possible, the spray teams also carefully re-evaluated their daily spray calendar based on fuel supply.

To maximize spray coverage and protect as many people as possible, the teams utilized the community mobilizers to their full extent to sensitize community members to be as flexible as possible for potential spray date changes. If fuel supply was very low or not available on a specific date, the team would quickly reassess their calendar and spray communities close to the operational sites versus spraying remote villages that day. This strategy allowed the team to minimize disruptions as much as possible. In addition, quick coordination across all operational sites was facilitated by the local district health management teams, who were integrated as part of the VectorLink team and assigned to specific operational sites for local government capacity strengthening.

The team’s efforts paid off. PMI VectorLink achieved around 95% spray coverage in Bombali district and 97% in Bo district (final results pending data cleaning).

Kudos to the whole VL Sierra Leone team. Job well done!

The PMI VectorLink Côte d’Ivoire team wrapped up its third indoor residual spraying (IRS) campaign last week. We all know that implementing IRS campaigns is no easy feat, and VL Côte d’Ivoire delivered fantastic results. This week’s Fist Bump goes to the VL Côte d’Ivoire team because along with high spray coverage, the team supported vaccinations of spray operators against COVID-19 and implemented a self-mobilization strategy.

The team started off on a strong note by working with the District Health Authority to sensitize the SOPs during the SOP training on the importance of vaccination against COVID-19. Local health care workers provided the opportunity for vaccination at each operational site, and VL Côte d’Ivoire helped address misinformation. In Anduzume operational site in Sakassou district, 100 percent of the SOPs were vaccinated.

This year, VL Côte d’Ivoire also introduced self-mobilization by engaging community leaders as IRS mobilizers. For this mobilization strategy, the project involved village chiefs, for they are leaders within their communities with reputable communication channels to share key messages with community members about the IRS campaign. The project held a meeting with the village chief in each community in coordination with the District Health Officer and supported by the administrative authorities to train the village chiefs on mobilization and IRS messages. The village chiefs then met with their staff in the community and with young people to share the necessary information in the local language.

With project guidance, village chiefs addressed common myths or misunderstandings about IRS and ultimately increased IRS acceptance rates within their communities. They were supported by youth volunteers to conduct door-to-door visits to share key messages about malaria prevention and household responsibilities pre- and post-spray, as well as collect mobilization data. When a refusal case persisted, the village chief elevated it to the higher Administrative Authority who was the community’s government representative.

The results speak for themselves. PMI VectorLink achieved a 98.5 percent spray coverage across both IRS target districts and exceeded both districts’ spray targets: 105 percent in Nassian and 116 percent in Sakassou (final results pending data cleaning). These results are higher than previous IRS campaigns, improving Nassian and Sakassou’s vector control and malaria health outcomes.

Way to go, VL Côte d’Ivoire! Excellent work all around.

This week was the first week of the PMI VectorLink Regional Entomology M&E DHIS2 Training in Cameroon. The training, with participants expected from 18 countries (Angola, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, DRC, Madagascar, and Niger) over the course of both weeks, is the first in-person training event to take place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While there is still another week remaining, we wanted to Fist Bump those who made this training possible: Project Management Analyst, Madalyn Garcia, Entomology M&E Specialists, Marianne Henry and Lilly Siems, Technical Director Matt Kirby, Senior Data Visualization Developer Matt Boddie, M&E Director Kate Stillman, and PMI VectorLink Cameroon COP Dr. Etienne Fondjo and F&A Manager Jeannette Epee Kwa. 

Participants were delighted to be joined by our PMI and USAID colleagues on the first day: Dr. Jose Tchofa, Health Office Director, USAID Cameroon; Dr. Aissata Fofana, Resident Advisor, PMI, USAID Cameroon; and Souleymanou Souleymanou, Project Management Specialist for Malaria Data, PMI, USAID Cameroon. Facilitators covered topics such as entomology data integrity and best practices; a review of the data structure for entomology in VectorLink Collect; and data quality processes, expectations, and monitoring. Each of the first three days included practical exercises for the participants, who worked their way through technical data review; data visualizer pivot tables; and raw data export, among other activities. On the fourth and final day, using everything they had learned, a few country teams presented their final project to the full group—demonstrating dashboards they had created as if they were presenting to their local stakeholders.

Excellent work providing an enriching training experience. We look forward to hearing even more about the training following week two!

World Environment Day is this Sunday. According to Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority, Uganda struggles with poor solid waste management practices characterised by indiscriminate dumping and open burning of accumulated waste. So, this week’s Fist Bump goes to VectorLink Uganda for ensuring the most eco-friendly and safe solid waste management practices. During the 2022 spray campaign, the team collected and recycled a huge 126,237 water bottles, preventing them from being discarded into roadside waste dumps.

Wastes were separated by category at operational sites and were disposed of through incineration for hazardous wastes and landfilling and recycling for non-contaminated wastes. Plastics available for recycling comprise of damaged or worn-out buckets, jerrycans, and barrels made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), plastic sheeting composed of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles, used for midday hydration of spray teams during the spray campaign. Paper available for recycling was largely cardboard, used as secondary packaging for insecticide.

Empty PET water bottles were shredded and turned into raw material in the manufacturing process of new plastic bottles by Hema Beverages Limited, the manufacturer and distributer of potable water. HDPE and LDPE were recycled into corrugated culverts, drainage pipes and drippers for irrigation drip lines by Gentex Enterprises Limited. Paper wastes were recycled into products such as tissue paper and book covers by Uganda Pulp and Paper Limited. Transportation and recycling costs were absorbed by the partner waste facilities.

Besides environmental protection, this approach saved the project approximately $14,947 in 2022, $20,279 in 2021 and $24,247 in 2020. The decrease in savings is largely due to the rotation of insecticides that come in sachets vs. plastic bottles.

Well done, VL Uganda. It is great to see waste being handled in as responsible a manner as possible!  

While World Malaria Day is observed on April 25 each year, commemorative activities continue to take place in the days and weeks afterward. Today we’ve got a Double Fist Bump, recognizing our PMI VectorLink Zambia and PMI VectorLink Liberia colleagues for their World Malaria Day events. PMI VectorLink Zambia participated in the Copperbelt provincial activities in Mpongwe on April 27, as one of 20 exhibitors, and PMI VectorLink Liberia, along with the NMCP, showcased its work at the World Malaria Day Parade on May 6 in Oldest Congo Town.

Every year, VectorLink Zambia supports the Ministry of Health in commemoration events for World Malaria Day through activities that showcase the project’s contributions in the fight against malaria. VectorLink Zambia printed one back drop and seven pop-up banners that were displayed during the Mpongwe provincial event. In addition, VectorLink partnered with the provincial and district health offices and Konkola Copper Mines, which implements IRS within its catchment area, to showcase IRS, ITN, and entomological surveillance activities. This was done through posters, a display of vector control commodities, IRS equipment and tools, mosquito collection tools and entomological monitoring procedures, and a display of live mosquito samples showing all life stages of Anopheles mosquitoes.

The vector control team stand attracted the attention of many people at the event, who were eager to learn more about the project’s activities. The exhibition’s judges, who included the Copperbelt Provincial Minister, were impressed with the display, and recognized the team with the best exhibitor award.

In Liberia, the World Malaria Day parade event featured USAID Liberia Health Office Director Jessica Healey as the keynote speaker. In her speech, Director Healey acknowledged VectorLink Liberia’s contributions to the fight against malaria, specifically the team’s monitoring of insecticide resistance and the data generated over the years that showed that the pyrethroids used to treat the standard ITNs were no longer fully effective. She noted that because of this work, Liberia changed its bed net procurement policy, and is now using a more effective ITN; there are enough of these nets to cover the whole population.

Like VL Zambia, VectorLink Liberia and the NMCP also had an exhibition stand at their event that featured live adult mosquitoes and larvae, demonstrations of different mosquito collection techniques, a microscope to show the morphology of adult mosquitoes and larvae, and an overall explanation of the project and NMCP work.

Kudos to VectorLink Zambia and vector control partners for a well-deserved award, and kudos to VectorLink Liberia for sharing their work in collaboration with the NMCP!

The Women Innovators and Leaders (WILD) 2022 Women in Global Development Leadership Forum was this week, so today’s Fist Bump goes to VectorLink Zimbabwe COP, Carmen Vilanova de Denys, who served as a panelist for the session, Challenges & Opportunities: Translating DEI Programs Across Multinational Organizations with a Wide Variety of Cultural, Political, and Legal Contexts.

Incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an ongoing process. Carmen discussed how within the VectorLink project, including Zimbabwe, there are equity focal points, who with guidance from the home office gender equality and social inclusion advisor, lead the project’s equity agenda within their respective countries. VL Zimbabwe has made strides in its inclusion of female seasonal workers. From 2014 (under AIRS) to 2020 (last year of spraying), the team increased female supervisors from 11 to 23, and female SOPs increased from two to 50.

On a personal level, Carmen stated, “I feel extremely valued and supported by the company [as an Abt female COP].”

The session later went into the importance of data. Carmen discussed how VL Zimbabwe is collaborating with the NMCP and other stakeholders to conduct a landscape analysis on unreached populations. These populations include those who refuse IRS. The analysis will cover two high burden malaria districts in each province. This information will enable more informed IRS and SBC interventions, tailoring strategies to reach these unreached populations.

Fully representing the PMI VectorLink project, Carmen also plugged how equity is a part of the whole project, citing last week’s webinar as an example. She said, “we also had a webinar last week about how Rwanda, Senegal, and Ghana are reaching unreached populations like in jails or in geographically remote communities.”

Thanks for sharing the great work that the PMI VectorLink Project is doing to incorporate DEI into our work, Carmen! It was a very interesting and informative session.

Yesterday’s Promoting Equity in Vector Control webinar was a resounding success. A feat that would not have been possible without the work of a few key people! This week’s Fist Bump goes to Tess Shiras (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor), Helen Amegbletor (IEC Manager Ghana), Godfrey Karera (Operations Manager Rwanda), Eugene Kiti (COP Rwanda), and Jean Biyik (COP Senegal) for all their work in turning this webinar from a concept to reality.

As PMI VectorLink’s Gender and Social Inclusion Advisor, Tess is dedicated to promoting equity in vector control. She asked our panelists engaging questions that provoked thoughtful responses and provided more information on the role of equity in vector control.

Our panelists provided great insight into the work that their respective government’s along with VectorLink are doing to reach the unreached and promote equity. Their participation was thanks to Helen, Godfrey, Eugene, and Jean, who contributed to content development, and enabled an overall successful webinar. Many thanks as well to our panelists, Dr. Amdy Thiam from Senegal, Otubea Akrofi from Ghana, and Dr. Emmanuel Hakizimana from Rwanda.

Thank you again for all your hard work, Tess, Helen, Godfrey, Eugene, and Jean. If you missed the webinar, it can be viewed on the Vector LearningXChange.

Community engagement is vital to malaria control and this week’s Fist Bump, featuring VectorLink Colombia, highlights just that. On World Malaria Day, VectorLink Colombia participated in an event geared toward educating high schoolers about malaria.

The Cauca Department Health Secretariat organized an outreach day aimed at young people in ninth, tenth and eleventh grades across high schools in the municipality of Guapi, on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. Different health entities working within the malaria space in the Cauca department and in the municipality, such as vector-borne disease technicians, the Guapi Municipal Health Secretariat, the bacteriology department of the hospital (Empresa Social del Estado-ESE Guapi) and the VectorLink project, were invited. Three Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) delegates also participated.

After introductory words, a musical performance with malaria and mosquito-related verses, and a quiz on malaria symptoms, treatment, and mosquito and parasite biology, the students explored different stands where the institutions explained their role in the fight against malaria. VL Colombia built three stands: mosquito identification, an insectarium, and bioassays to show what they do and how they do it.

In the first one, the team explained the different methods used to capture mosquitoes, sharing games that allowed the students to relate taxonomic identification with the species present in the area. In the Insectarium stand, VectorLink had living mosquitoes, allowing the community to see the life cycle and ecology of mosquitoes, along with artificial blood-feeding methods. The team also explained the reason for its existence: living mosquitoes are necessary for bioassays. The bioassays stand explained how the Project performs evaluations of mosquito control measures, using CDC bottle bioassays to evaluate insecticide resistance, cone bioassays of insecticide treated nets, and insecticide residuality on walls.

VL Colombia found the experience engaging. Younger generations and the community in general expanded their knowledge of malaria and recognized the importance of organizations that fight this disease.

Excellent work engaging youth in malaria control, VL Colombia!

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to the PMI VectorLink Nigeria team for their rollout of mobile data collection for entomology. In October 2021, the VectorLink Nigeria team transitioned from a Microsoft access-based data collection system to the DHIS2-based VectorLink Collect system at six sentinel sites where entomology surveillance and insecticide resistance monitoring activities are carried out.

To ensure more robust and near-real time data collection into VectorLink Collect, the project transitioned to the mobile DHIS2 Android Capture Application in four out of the six sentinel sites, becoming one of three countries to date to have done so. Quite an accomplishment given the team rolled out VectorLink Collect less than six months ago!

Leading up to the roll-out, two technicians from each of the four sentinel sites were trained on the use of the mobile DHIS2 Android Capture application to enable data entry and syncing directly into the VectorLink Collect system. Mobile data collection was launched at the four sites during monthly surveillance activities from March 14-17, 2022. All four teams successfully carried out data collection for all entomology activities using the newly deployed devices.

“The teams showed great excitement at having to make use of the mobile devices for data entry and were very quick in adapting to the new system,” said Ifeanyi Okeke, MEL Specialist, PMI VectorLink Nigeria

The deployment of the mobile system eliminates the need for pen and paper data collection and comes with several functionalities: near real-time data capture, direct syncing and analysis in a central server, intuitive data collection forms containing data filters and validation rules, an instant GPS collection system integrated into the data form—eliminating the need for a separate GPS device, and the ability to organize, store and update records with ease.

The mobile data collection system has eased the burden of data collection, making data available to decision-makers faster than ever before. It has removed the cost of printing paper forms for data collection, improved the quality of data, ensured timely collection and review of data, and enhanced data security.

Congratulations to the VectorLink Nigeria team!

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Today is a great opportunity to showcase the innovative work of the PMI VectorLink project’s Environmental Compliance team. This week’s Fist Bump goes to VectorLink Senegal ECO, Coumba Aicha Niang for creating furniture out of empty boxes of insecticide that can be used during IRS campaign activities.

Before any spray campaign, each country team must determine what kinds of waste will be generated by the project and develop an adequate waste management plan in accordance with PMI VectorLink standards and applicable in-country regulations. In Senegal, the plan for cardboard boxes—that previously contained sachets of insecticide—is to reuse them when possible or to incinerate them.

Animated by continuous process improvement, Coumba Aicha had the ingenious idea of collecting some insecticide boxes to turn into furniture that could be used during the IRS campaign. She brought home empty cardboard boxes to make, by herself, two storage drawers and a table as prototypes to present, and thus show that it is possible to give a second life to these cartons which were considered waste. These recycled cardboard boxes will be used in the health district, Koungheul 1 operations site, during the 2022 IRS campaign.

The storage drawers are light, but strong enough to support stationery, chain of custody tools, and files in an operations site. Coumba Aicha covered one storage drawer with an impermeable material to show that the drawer can be customized to extend its life. There are also stands that raise the drawers to protect against humidity. Coumba Aicha’s goal is to recycle cardboard into items that could be useful for IRS activities and in our daily lives.

This achievement demonstrates that there are lots of ways to reduce waste and minimize the environmental impact of our activities. Thank you for showing us that it is possible to take something from one life and repurpose it for another, Coumba Aicha!