The Reviewed and
Revised Compendium of Christian Projects
Addressing the Diseases
of Poverty: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB
Project name: Christian Women’s NetWorkers
Project
Country: Malawi
Church or denomination: Partnership of Presbyterian
Church (USA) and Reformed Church in America
Project
summary: The
Christian Women’s NetWorkers Program (CWNP) is an ecumenical congregation-based
community health program in Malawi, Africa, which provides malaria prevention
education and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to pregnant women and children
under age five, as well as treatment to pregnant women. The CWNP is a partnership between the
Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Reformed Church in America, and operates in
two regions of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP): the Synod of
Livingstonia in the area of Mzuzu, and the Synod of Nkhoma, north of Llongwe.
Background/ History: The CWNP is an expansion of
the NetWorkers Malaria Prevention Program which was initiated by the
Presbyterian Church (USA) at pilot sites in Malawi and Cameroon in 1999. The NetWorkers program provides malaria prevention
education and insecticide-treated nets through volunteer committees of women at
PC(USA) overseas partner churches.
Training and support is provided by PC(USA) medical mission personnel
and PC(USA)-affiliated health institutions.
Presbyterian congregations in the US support the NetWorkers projects
with awareness-building and fund-raising activities through church women’s
organization. U.S. churchwomen’s
groups also sew mosquito nets from kits and, since 1999, have made 7,000 nets. The NetWorkers project has grown from two
pilot sites in 1999 to 15 projects in eight countries.
In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) became
aware of the NetWorkers program in Africa and invited PC(USA) to facilitate the
participation of other faith-based organizations in the malaria component of
WHO’s “Massive Effort Campaign” against the diseases of poverty. In 2001, PC(USA) formed a collaboration
with the Reformed Church in America, to
develop malaria prevention activities to support WHO’s Roll Back Malaria
initiative.
The Christian Women’s NetWorkers Program trains and
equips women to implement malaria prevention and education activities which
target pregnant women and children under age five in underserved rural
communities in Malawi.
Goals:
§
Improve
the capacity of women in the Synod of Livingstonia and the Synod of Nkhoma to
implement malaria prevention activities
§
Learn
from the experience that the Synods’ hospitals, the women’s guilds projects and
the government have gained through their insecticide-treated net programs
§
Improve
access to malaria prevention services and information, through the structure of
the 136 churches in the two Synods and the government’s antenatal clinics
§
Teach
monitoring and evaluation methods to the women involved in the malaria
prevention project
§
Expand
and strengthen the congregational-based health programs within the two Synods
1.
Increase
to 50% the percentage of pregnant women sleeping under insecticide-treated nets
2.
Increase
to 40% the percentage of pregnant women who are able to state two valid adverse
consequences of malaria during pregnancy
3.
Increase
to 60% the proportion of pregnant women who receive at least two doses of
sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
4.
Increase
to 50% the percent of children under 5 years of age sleeping under an insecticide-treated
net
5.
Increase
the percentage of mothers who are able to state two valid adverse consequences
of delayed treatment of malaria for children
6.
Achieve
a 50% rate of retreatment of insecticide-treated nets sold by Christian Women’s
NetWorkers Project during the last 12 months
7.
Achieve
a rate of 65% of project groups delivering malaria-related health messages to
their members and others in the prior three months
Who does the work? The Christian Women’s
NetWorkers Program is directed by PC(USA) missionary Jodi McGill, MN, MPH, who
is the Primary Health Care Coordinator
for the Synod of Livingstonia Health Department. She supervises the original NetWorkers projects in Malawi. Ekwendeni Hospital in northern Malawi, (an
affiliate of PC(USA) for over 100 years,) and provides the resources for
program evaluation and follow-up. The
Reformed Church in America is facilitating its projects through its
church-based Women in Development groups, which began a malaria prevention
project on the NetWorkers model in 2000.
Main activities: While each denomination
shapes the design of its project site(s) to fit its existing structure, the
strategies implemented to reduce malaria transmission, mortality and morbidity
at each location are identical. Women
in each project site are trained to educate their neighbors, with a focused
outreach to women of child-bearing age.
Malaria prevention, the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the
availability of antenatal services, and the importance of receiving iron and
sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine as preventative treatment are covered, following the Malawi Ministry of Health
guidelines.
Training is provided in record-keeping and financial
skills, to facilitate the sale of insecticide-treated mosquito nets in a way that
promotes the sustainability of the project.
Insecticide-treated nets are made available through the project, at a
reduced cost for pregnant women.
Non-subsidized nets are also sold to other family members. An in-kind payment system assures the availability
of nets for persons lacking cash resources.
A program for regular re-dipping of the nets is established at each
project site.
Expected outcomes: See objectives listed above.
Results: Baseline survey completed
June 2002; results expected to be reported in mid-2003.
Lessons learned:
1. Women
from community churches are easily mobilized and highly motivated to implement
malaria prevention education activities and sell mosquito nets.
2.
Nets are well accepted in project communities; the
stumbling blocks to broader usage are cost and availability in poor and
geographically isolated areas.
3.
Members of U.S. churches can be mobilized to provide
financial support to malaria prevention activities targeting women and
children.
Funding and other resources:
A major
component of the project is support by women’s groups in the U.S.
congregations. Providing resources to
these groups to educate their congregations about malaria as a global health
problem has been the major factor in the development of financial support for
15 NetWorkers projects currently coordinated by PC(USA). The Reformed Church in
America has developed U.S. support for its malaria prevention project in Nkhoma
Synod through special mission events in U.S. churches.
In 2001, the Christian Women’s NetWorkers Project
was awarded funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), making it
one of the first faith-based health projects to receive federal financial
support from the CDC. A fund-raising
project was successfully implemented as a pilot in conjunction with Mother’s
Day, 2001, and repeated in 2002.
NetWorkers Mother’s Day cards were made available through PC(USA)
congregations, with donations received
in exchange for the cards earmarked for the provision of mosquito nets to pregnant women at project sites in Malawi. The NetWorkers Mothers Day Project saw a
150% increase in donations in its second year.
The project will be an annual opportunity for US church members to
support the CWNP.
Further reading and other
documents: Roll
Back Malaria web site (www.rbm.who.int);
PC(USA)
website, www.pcusa.org.
Contact information:
Jodi McGill, Project
Director – Malawi
E-mail: mcgill@africa-online.net
Gail Bingham, U.S.
Project Manager
E-mail: gbingham@ctr.pcusa.org