Malaria Self Help Project Insecticide Treated Net Project
The Malaria Self Help Project (MSHP) started in 1994, but was first called the Gokwe Malaria Project as it started in Gokwe District. This project was a collaboration between Peter Carroll of Emnet (Pvt) Ltd (a local mosquito net manufacturer in Zimbabwe) and Tim Freeman who later formed Malair (Pvt) Ltd. Tim Freeman had just worked for two years at the Ministry of Health Blair Research Institute in Harare (now National Institute for Health) where he had been doing education research on malaria in the Gokwe area of the Zambezi Valley. Part of this programme had been testing the viability of selling mosquito nets in rural areas of Zimbabwe with mosquito nets loaned from Emnet. Surprisingly, it was found that rural people were willing to buy mosquito nets. The MHSP was created to promote the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) in Zimbabwe, particularly in rural areas. To launch the programme, a mosquito net was designed called the Rukukwe (Shona for sleeping mat). This was a conical net with a clothe tube sewn in at the bottom of the net into which stones could be placed to weight the net down. This allowed this conical net to be used by people sleeping on the floor with a sleeping mat. To reach rural areas, the project sold nets through health facilities in remote areas. The MSHP was selling nets from about 40 health facilities during the period of 1994 to 1995. The major problem with the programme was stock control as the health facilities were spread out over a very large area. However, the programme clearly showed that people were willing to buy nets at commercial prices. In 1996 the MSHP received funding from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tropical Disease Research (TDR) to initiate a Mail Order delivery system for ITNs in Zimbabwe. This programme was a joint venture between Malair (Pvt) Ltd and Emnet (Pvt) Ltd. For this programme, a new conical ITN was designed and branded the “Sleep Easy” ITN. This was the first ITN to be sold in Zimbabwe and was advertised in various ways including Direct Mail (letters sent at random to a large number of potential customers), newspapers and journals, and a traveling rural road show. People could order nets through Mail Order sending either the full price of the net or a small deposit, paying Cash on Delivery for the difference owed. In total, the project sold about 5,000 ITNs at full commercial prices through the Mail Order system, but the programme was eventually forced to close as the Postal Service would raise the postal prices without warning. However, the advertising brought an unknown number of people to buy mosquito nets direct from the Emnet factory but sadly it was impossible to know how many of the factory sales were a result of the MSHP. Malair (Pvt) Ltd also worked with PSI (Population Services International) in 1997 to distribute ITNs in the eastern part of the Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe. This project was remarkable in that ITNs were Socially Marketed for a price of about of US$7. While only about 15,000 ITNs were sold at this price, in some areas, coverage of over 50% ITN coverage was achieved in some areas.
		Documents To Download · Gokwe Malaria Project 1994 · Report On Mail Order 1996-7 · Survey Of Mosquito Net 1997 · Report On PSI Project 1997 Return To Home Page