Universal Net Distribution

Yay free stuff! Universal net distribution was recently in my village and I was lucky enough to be involved in the entire process! Net distribution is a government organized, USAID funded program with the ultimate goal of every person to have a net to sleep under, every night, all year long.  While there are flaws to this plan, it is not because of the project structure.  People just don't like to sleep under nets.  Some people find them too hot, others think the pesticide coating causes itching, and many people simply say they don't have enough money to buy them.  Net distribution addresses the last excuse.

The process for me began with a census.  I went with my counterpart and the other relais from my health area (Bignarabe) and went house to house, asking how many people lived in each compound and looking at each sleeping space.  Why not beds? you might be asking. Not everyone has a bed, and kids often sleep on a mat or mattress on the floor, and other people have areas set up outside.  These are all included in the census.  I hit 7 villages in 3 days and went to approximately 200 compounds.  This was just a fraction of the villages and compounds we were expected to cover, but other relais went to other villages.  Once we were done we brought our results back to the health post, who took them to the regional capital in order to actually request the nets.

Fun midway fact, I was the only female involved in the census.  I pointed this out to my counterpart, who has come to understand my sensitivity to gender differences, and he said it was because women can't ride bikes, and the whole census was done on bikes.  That's ridiculous! I ride a bike.  Then I asked Fatou, my female counterpart, and she confirmed it- none of the women could ride a bike, and the only one that could was a teenager and needed to go to school instead.  Thinking about it later it would have been hilarious to see these cheb mama women riding their bikes through bush-beaten tracks.  But I digress.

We had two days of distribution prep and a full day of actual distribution.  Prep involved unwrapping each net and writing the name of the head of household, town, area, year, and date.  We were provided with four pens, all of which ran out on the first day.  We poured water into them to get every last mark we could, and we able to borrow two pens from the Totstan teacher.  Things would have gone much quicker and a little less frustrating though if we were all able to have pens.

I really wanted a good pen.

The day of was very simply people coming to my village and picking up their nets.  We tried to give a talk beforehand, but we hadn't told anyone this was a requirement and everyone thought they could just pick up their nets and go back to cooking or the fields.  The rest of the day went well though, and I got to see everyone from my village as well as meet people from the surrounding villages.

Nima with her new nets!

For your viewing pleasure.