PSI Mozambique

Tem Mais is helping women better plan their families

Meet Miss Percina, a 25 year-old resident of "Bairro Azul", a neighborhood in Tete province. She's the mother of a 2 year-old son and, one day, moved by her curiosity decided to go into the Tem Mais franchise in Matema.

In that morning our nurse offered her a variety of services, of which she choose the HIV test and Family Planning.

For Miss Percina it was a great opportunity, since she wasn't taking any contraceptive and was at rick of having an unplanned pregnancy. There were always big lines when she went to the health facility and because of that, since that day she choose to always go to Tem Mais, where she has already done 3 consultations.

Happy and satisfied with the services, Miss Percina invited our nurse to visit her Mom Group at her Church, because they too need the services offered by the Tem Mais' program.

Now our health promoters can pass referrals with unique codes to their clients, so that they can access Tem Mais' services for free.

The codes can only be validated once and are associated to a specific promoter. This way, when a nurse validates the code, through a text message, the promoter who passed the referral receives a confirmation.

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Meet Aissa, she is a 24 year old health promoter from Maxaquene.

"I've been doing interpersonal communication activities since 2009. With Tem Mais we have more topics and more challenging goals", she says.

Each week she delivers integrated health messages in her community on the topics of Family Planning, Malaria, HIV, Nutrition and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene.

"I visit the houses in the mornings, when the women are still cleaning and cooking", Aissa says. She does door-to-door activities in over 30 households every week. "Then, in the afternoon I go home, cook dinner and after I go to school", she adds.

TV spot for J14, our new caipirinha flavoured Jeito..

J14 is a special edition condom made exclusively for the World Cup. Inspired not only by the brazilian collors - it is green and yellow, J14 also tastes like caipirinha, a typical brazillian cocktail.

Launched in May, it comes in three different packages, all holding a single condom and is for sale for 0.79 USD.

Last week, from May 27th to May 30th, we held a Movercado Safari in Maputo for over 15 PSI platforms, including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Kenya and Somaliland.

The goal of the event was to not only showcase the distinctive features of Movercado, but also to dream and plan the future of Movercado in the following years.

During the Safari, the participants had the opportunity to learn about Movercado in first hand, not only through conference-like sessions, but mostly through field trips and role play. 

Last week Lynne Featherstone visited us and wrote on her blog about the experience. Here's an excerpt:

In Mozambique there is limited access and knowledge of family planning and other health services. In rural areas families find it difficult to get to hospitals and pharmacies, because they are often too far away and transport is limited. Half a day spent travelling to a hospital means half a day less of work. At the same time the shops that are accessible often only stock 2 or 3 items, and they are the products that sell the best. This doesn’t include healthcare products and as a result only 12% of the population use contraception.

The charity I met today – Population Services International (PSI) – is changing that. They use an innovative system that creates both demand and supply for health products. People are invited to attend a health education seminar after which they receive mobile phone vouchers for health products which can be redeemed for free at shops and pharmacies. This not only encourages people to use contraceptives but also encourages shops to stock them. At the same time it also generates a network of wholesalers and ‘Avon Lady’ style distributors. They go door to door encouraging people to take-up the products, which are still free to the customer, whilst the ‘Avon Lady’ earns a commission. This dramatically increases access while also giving people the chance to earn an income. Today I met a star seller who has been so successful that she could start building her own house.

Lynne Featherstone meets distributors and sellers of health products, including star seller (right) who has been able to start building her house. Picture: Julia Smith/DFID

 Child and Maternal health Nurse Natália works at Farmácia Matilde’s Tem Mais since January of 2014. There, in Maxaquene C, every day she provides family planning services and voluntary counseling and testing in health.

Tem Mais aims to provide access to health related services and messages through a network of franchises with the help of community health promoters, community health counselors and maternal and child health nurses.

The franchises can be in private clinics; community centers; health facilities and pharmacies. There, the beneficiaries would have access to services such as family planning; HIV testing; Malaria testing; blood pressure screening and nutrition counseling, among others.

Between January and March, in Maputo, over 300 people had access to said services through Tem Mais franchises.

In 2013, PSI exceeded the number of long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets distributed by over half a million, having achieved 1 752 585 nets. 

By providing logistics, transport and storage from port to health centers and, in some provinces, district health posts, PSI ensures that pregnant women receive the nets. 

In Mozambique, malaria is responsible for almost 30% of all registered deaths in local hospitals.

Pregnant women and children are the most affected, due to the fragility of their immune system. About 60 percent of all pediatric admissions are due to malaria.

Throwback thursday: A brochure about Certeza, our water purifier, disclosing its different uses, prices and other good practices to protect the family from diarreal diseases.

This is an ad for our studded condom, J3, at a gas station in Maputo.

Super Bebé is packed in one gram powder sachets, which are added to semi-solid foods, such as porridges, after the food is prepared.

It is sold in pharmacies, supermarkets and grocery stores at a price of 2 MZN (USD 0.06) per unit.

Since its launch, in early February of 2014, 6 182 580 units of Super Bebé have been distributed.

In Mozambique, 44% of children under the age of five are stunted and 18% are underweight. 

Most of the irreversible damage of poor nutrition occurs during gestation and within the first 24 months of life. Undernourished teens, who account for 40% of pregnant women in Mozambique, give birth to low birth weight children, creating a vicious cycle of malnutrition.

To improve the health of infants, PSI Mozambique launched in February of 2014 a micro nutrient powder branded Super Bebé.

It contais 15 micro-nutrients and is targeted at women aged 18 to 35 with low incomes with at least one child aged between 6 and 24 months. A 1g sachet is to be added to food daily and continuously for at least a month to visibly change the child's health.