Raising awareness and changing attitudes about ITNs.

Asha Mwanachawa a young wife and mother in Kwale Kenya wanted desperately to talk to her husband about purchasing an insecticide-treated net (ITN) to protect their growing family from the dangers of malaria. Asha had learned about ITNs from an educational session at her clinic while pregnant with her first child. But her pleas to her husband to purchase one went unanswered. Asha is of the Digo ethnic group a highly patriarchal coastal people and Digo men make all the major decisions. When PSI/Kenyas Supanet ITN brand sponsored a water sports festival in her village her husband was enticed by the fishing contest and prizes. In the course of information sessions given during the festival he learned about malaria and the benefits of ITNs. Asha is now the proud owner of two Supanet ITNs her husbands fishing team won a television and most importantly her family is protected from malaria. This is one example of how Population Services International (PSI) a nonprofit organization working in more then 70 countries uses social marketing to popularize healthy behavior in poor countries. Such social marketing programs have sold more than 4 million ITNs and 5.4 million home insecticide re-treatment kits which have together provided 10.3 million person-years of malaria protection (through April 2003) in Africa South America and Asia. These programs are among the most cost-effective health interventions available - protecting individuals from malaria at a cost often less than $2 per person per year. PSIs programs are also sustainable motivating consumers to contribute a substantial share of the cost and stimulating the commercial sector to increase the production and distribution of ITNs. (excerpt)