7/17/10 Evaluation

Our first day of evaluation went really well. We were supposed to go to Bwiri today but couldn’t get plans to go through at the last minute, so are instead returning to the Yakina village to evaluate those that we gave nets to. Visiting some of our participants was really rewarding. It seems like some of the people we had completed the education intervention with had their nets hanging down and tucked in during the day, answered correctly on how often they should wash nets, and even had our laminated education tags hanging! Our control households which we did not give the intervention to, seemed to possess the same knowledge as before so we know that those that received the education did not diffuse knowledge. After the evaluation survey, we then gave the education to the control groups. Our education intervention consists of telling the participants about the cause of malaria, how it can be severe in young children, describe the net we give them, to wash the net only 4-5 times a year, never wash it in the lake, dry it in the shade not direct sunlight, and to leave the net hanging down and tucked in all day to avoid any mosquitoes at night. Beyond the verbal part, we also have a laminated card that looks like a big bookmark with a hole in the middle to hang with a net…its like an instruction card. We also offer to help hang any nets and show them how to properly tuck them in. While designing this project, I wasn’t sure whether people would necessarily adopt the new behavior after 10 minutes of explaining, but it seems to be working some of the time!