Outline of the Netlife Program

Ok. Once we arrive in the village, we have an opportunity to have a very receptive audience. We take advantage of this by teaching some important lessons about malaria and hand washing. This is all done in pulaar and much of it is in a question/answer format (ex: Ko honno jonte noje falorte hara nangani neddo? = what is the best way to protect people from malaria?)

I. Greetings - If we don't greet properly people are instantly turned off. They start thinking we aren't very respectful and start tuning out, so we greet quite thoroughly.

II. Who We Are - We introduce us by our names (Ablaye Diallo = Andy and Youssouf Diallo = Jesse) and by our organization. We say Netlife in english and explain Net equals moustiquaire (french) and sanke (pulaar). Life equals la vie (french) or nduurgam (pulaar). We emphasize the fact that Netlife is a new organization and that it is not the peace corps. We do this so people in these villages don't start expecting peace corps volunteers to start doing mosquito net distributions, because right now, they don't. We really don't want people in the villages driving the peace corps volunteers crazy with requests for nets,

III. Trouble In The Villages
A. We explain why we chose this particular village (distance from health care, large amounts of stagnant water, high number of positive malaria testing in the last few years)

B. Two main problems.
1. Diarrheal diseases - we talk about hand washing as the best preventative method. we emphasize the importance of hand washing before eating, cooking, after using the bathroom and after cleaning up poopy babies. we also emphasize the importance of using water AND SOAP.

2. Malaria - questions: What causes malaria? When is malaria dangerous? What happens when you get malaria/symptoms? What do you do if have malaria? What should you do if you are pregnant and want to avoid malaria? What is the best way to prevent malaria? When do you start using mosquito nets? When do you take down the mosquito nets? How can you ruin nets?

we answer all of these questions thoroughly with audience participation. a lot of this is fun. when we talk about when to put them up, we remind them that we brought the all the way from america to morocco, from morocco to dakar, from dakar to kedougou and from kedougou to whatever village we are in. if they don't put up the nets today, we'll kick their butts. and everyone laughs and understands. i should say that almost everyone knows the answers to these questions, which is reassuring. i once read an argument against nets claiming that people would use them as fishing nets or other odd uses. when i talk about how can people ruin nets and bring this up, they look at me as if i was crazy. the people we talk to understand the value of these nets and talking about fishing with them is the same as asking an american to use their wedding ring as a lure to catch a walleye.

We also review the new malaria testing that is being offered for free at area health posts. We highlight that the test can accurately can tell (really really) if you have malaria or not. The plus side is that if they don't, they won't have to spend too much money on drugs. Also, the more testing that occurs in these areas, the more accurate the data will be reflecting the actual incidence of malaria.

IV. Details Of The Nets - We start with the truth - These nets are awesome. They are big. They have insecticide inside the fibers that can last up to four years. They can be washed up to 20 times before the insecticide is ineffective. After 20 washes, if the net is still intact, you can have retreated with insecticide at the local health post.

V. This Is The End - We tell these villages that we're basically done, that we're never coming back. This isn't necessarily the truth, but we want to make sure that the people don't put off buying a net while thinking we will come back soon. We emphasize that if their net goes bad, to buy another one as soon as possible. Do not wait for another project like this to come by here.

VI: Take Home Points - From the returns on the new malaria test so far, we can see a high rate of positive malaria tests during the months of September and October- after rainy season is done. If you want to avoid malaria during bad times, you should keep the net up until the end of November. Ideally, we want you to have the nets up year round, but at least through November.

We also know that some people may have two nets or will someday have two nets. We explain that we are doing this project to help people in the rural areas, and we just want to make sure people in rural areas have more access to nets. We encourage anyone that has two nets to give one to someone (a relative or whoever, ideally a pregnant woman or a woman with children) in another rural village. We encourage not giving them to people in cities like Kedougou or Tambacounda, because our emphasis is rural and people in cities are already lucky enough to have access to better health care.

Then we distribute the nets, dance and eat lunch. Then we take a few deep breaths and go on to the next village.

Be in peace
-Andy