Women go for ante-natal visits and use bednets (Togo)

There has been a change in attitude in many villages in Togo. An elderly women remembers, “Before, at five months of pregnancy, we did not go to the Health Centre. The husband would visit the sorcerer and we would sacrifice a hen to the ancestors to protect the foetus. Nowadays, mortality has gone down dramatically because women go for their ante-natal visits and use bednets. Thanks to the Club for Mothers, they now understand that the sorcerer does not cure malaria.”

Yengema village maintains a clean environment (Sierra Leone)

In 2007, four villages including Yengema village did their self-assessment with support from World Vision Sierra Leone. Representatives from Yengema then started to mobilize their community in the acknowledgement of malaria as a disease for which they must take action. Not only did people demand malaria commodities including Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) from the local clinic. The entire community also mounted a campaign to have and maintain a clean environment to avoid mosquito breeding sites. To date, Yengema has continued to maintain a very clean environment, it protects its children and women.

Everyone uses its bednet (the Gambia)

Mr Kenbugul Faye from Bara remembers the numerous miscarriages of the past and the sadness of the families. "This does not happen any longer because the pregnant women go to the Health Centre for the ante-natal visit. And if Kenbugul admits that some villagers did not use their bednets in the past, he adds that they changed their minds and their behaviour, when he threatened to take back the bednets.