Zebilla (U/E), Oct. 5, GNA - Residents of Bawku West District have developed a craze for mosquito net use and are demanding to even buy the product which is in short supply on the market. An official of the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization (ADDRO) in the Bawku West District, Mr Ebenezer Ndebilla, told the GNA that the trend has been so because ADDRO was actively engaged in an anti-malarial programme.

The programme is jointly funded by the USAID under its Malaria Communities Programme (MCP) and the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) under its NETSFORLIFE programme. Mr. Ndebilla said the high demand for the long lasting insecticide net= s (LLINS) is partly attributable to ADDRO's Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) strategy to get the people to change their behavior in appreciating the effectiveness of the net in preventing mosquito bites and malaria. He said the BCC activity involved meeting community members at durbars= , organized meetings among opinion leaders, the training of community volunteers where strategies used to demonstrate the importance in acquiring= , possessing and using LLINS to check malaria. Mr. Ndebilla said for the past two years, the Ghana Health Service in the district had not had LLINS to sell to the people in the community at subsidized cost.

He said the project had distributed about 12,505 LLINS free of charge to 128 communities where about 25,000 people will directly benefit. He said the project since its inception has trained about 280 community volunteers and about 300 opinion leaders in the Bawku West District. Mr Ndebilla expressed the hope that stakeholders, especially the Malaria Control Programme, USAIDand NETFORLIFE, would raise some nets for distribution or sale on the market.