SUCCESS STORIES

Voucher Program Bolsters Net Use and Awareness

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Amid the barren setting of Juma Lubapula village, Salmo Kahindi’s wide, bright smile and insuppressible charisma seems almost out of place. Life is far from easy for her rural farming family, but her positive attitude persists, as she cares for her seven children and her neighbors, since Salome is also a community health worker.

“The biggest problem we face here above everything is malaria, especially pregnant women and children,” said Kahindi, echoing a reality well-understood by the Tanzanian National Malaria Control Program and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

In late 2004, the multifaceted Tanzanian National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) was launched to tackle malaria in communities like Juma Lubapula by boosting availability and use of insecticide-treated nets (ITN).

At the program’s forefront is the ongoing provision of vouchers to pregnant women during antenatal screenings to subsidize their purchase of ITNs. Not only does the voucher result in about a 75% discount on ITNs, but it also reaches those most vulnerable to malaria, like expectant mothers, while encouraging antenatal care.

“I have already seen about ten pregnant women and it’s still morning,” Jenz Zedekia, a health worker at Loumeji village clinic in northern Tanzania. “We usually see about twenty women per day that come in because they know they can get vouchers for nets.”

Through this nationwide effort, the importance of ITN ownership and awareness is instilled in Tanzanian society. Even poor families like Salome Kahindi’s save for months to pay the difference for the discounted ITN, because they understand its value firsthand.

“Now that we have nets, my family is safe and healthy, and we all sleep good at night,” Kahindi said. “Before the voucher program, people like us couldn’t afford nets at all. Now we are all trying to save money to buy more because it keeps us free of malaria.”

PMI and partners like MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) persist in lending support to the TNVS and are also helping to fund vouchers for children under five receiving vaccinations, in addition to vouchers for expectant mothers.

“We need the nets to protect us,” said Regina Mathias, an expectant mother in nearby Magu.
“I came today and received voucher for pregnant women and will come back again after the baby is born for its vaccinations. We will receive another voucher then, and that means more another net to protect our family. This really helps us.”