SSFP chose the Best Project Directors for 2009 and awarded them in a simple ceremony that took place on October 27, 2009 at the Lake Shore Hotel in Dhaka. The award acknowledged PD’s good performance, while at the same time it encourages others in the Smiling Sun network to do better. This year the best Project Director (PD) award went to Mr. Rafiqul Islam of Swanirvar Bangladesh, a partner NGO of SSFP network. The Second and Third Best PD awards went to Mr. Dr. A.F.M. Mostofa Sarkar of Kanchan Samity and Mr. S. M. Mahfuz Ali of Community Reconstruction Center (CRC) respectively. Dr. Kanta Jamil, Deputy Director, OPHNE, USAID, Mr. Krishnapada Chakraborty, COTR, OPHNE, USAID, Mr. M. Munirul Islam, General Manager of GMG Airlines, Debashish Roy, Deputy General Manager of Grameen Phone and Juan Carlos Negrette, Chief of Party (CoP) of SSFP gave away the prizes, crest and certificates to the selected best PDs.

The best PDs selection went through a judicious selection process that considered 20 elements to ensure that the awards would go to the PDs who presented the highest managerial efficiency, used grant funds appropriately, reported in a timely manner, ensured adequate quality of care, delivered as expected services to the poor and finally who met financial objectives.

In her speech, Dr. Kanta Jamil said that USAID would always encourage innovations in program interventions and would like to reward best innovations in future. “This award will not only to encourage the Best Project Directors to keep up the good work, but will also motivate others to strive to do better and be the best project director in the quarters and years to come,” she added. 

Mr. Krishnapada Chakraborty of USAID said that he was happy to be a part of this event, which would inspire all to provide better services to the common people of Bangladesh. 

Juan Carlos Negrette, Chief of Party of SSFP in his welcome speech said that the awards have been given in recognition of PDs effective clinic management, compliance with USAID regulations and timeliness of reporting. SSFP staff have worked together to review the project director’s comprehensive performance from October 2008 to September 2009 in the areas.

Representatives from the private sector partners, GMG Airlines and Grameen Phone, also spoke on the occasion. GMG Airlines, Grameen Phone and Transcom Electronics Ltd. were generous to contribute prizes in order to encourage and reward excellence in job performance and acknowledged SSFP contribution to solve pressing social needs in Bangladesh

On occasion of the Global Hand-washing Day, 2009, the Smiling Sun Franchise Program (SSFP) on October 15, 2009 launched a countrywide awareness campaign with Dettol, on the importance of hand washing as an effective mean of disease prevention.

SSFP launched the program at a school called Shah Makhdum Academy near the Smiling Sun Clinic in Tongi to observe Global Hand Washing Day. Representatives from SSFP and Reckitt Benckiser Limited (Bangladesh) Limited/Dettol demonstrated the techniques and benefits of proper hand washing in front of 200 school children and community people. The school children also participated in the program enthusiastically and committed to practice hand-washing as well as teach others in their families. On the same occasion, the Chief of Party of SSFP, Juan Carlos Negrette also attended Dettol’s School Hand Wash Campaign at Scholastica in Dhaka, as Chief Guest.

SSFP distributed 7,200 soap contributed by Dettol soap along with other promotional materials to give out messages on the importance of hand washing so that mothers and their children can prevent diseases. Reckitt’s contribution to SSFP for this campaign is about US $ 5,000 in kind. Community Service Providers (CSPs) will demonstrate the techniques and benefits of proper hand washing to an estimated 150,000 people in one week. SSFP has also undertaken a number of  other promotional programs including hanging of posters, banners with behavior change messages in each clinic, distribution of leaflets, video screening, miking and school awareness programs.

Smiling Sun Franchise Program (SSFP) with two of its partnering organizations – CWFD and SWANIRVAR signed an agreement with Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) Limited and their Distributor on October 8, 2009, to implement a pilot program through 13 Smiling Sun Clinics in Tangail.

This pilot involves the role of the Community Service Providers (CSPs) to go door to door, to promote hand-washing with soap in order to reduce and or eliminate spread of infection. This initiative will also allow the selected clinics and the CSPs to make some revenue out of the sale of soap that Reckitt is providing at a price of 20% less than the MRP. Ms. Zahur Fatima, Executive Director of the Concerned Women for family Development (CWFD), Mr. S.M. Al-Husainy, Chairman of SWANIRVAR Bangladesh, Juan Carlos Negrette, Chief of Party of SSFP, Lutful H Chowdhury, Managing Director of Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) Limited and Jahangir Alam, Distributor of Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) Limited were the signatories of the MOU.

SSFP held its seventh Clinical Quality Council (CQC). There, participants acknowledged that clinic staff has showed an increased sense of responsibility and responsiveness in maintaining and improving quality of care. They mentioned that Clinic Level Quality Circles (CLQC) had been instrumental in creating this culture of quality, but they also acknowledged that it is important persevere so all clinics use them regularly and consistently.

This CQC meeting was held on 29 September 2009 at the Asia Pacific Blossom Hotel, Dhaka. All Monitoring Officers and some Project Directors of SSFP participated in the meeting. The meeting reviewed the status of the third round of QMS.

Quality Monitoring and Supervision (QMS) is a regular assessment tool to assess service providers’ skills in essential service delivery as well as to provide on-site technical assistance.

The report of present QMS round will be generated next month but preliminary estimates show that the scores of the third round were higher than the previous round.

In the meeting participants decided that the fourth round of QMS would begin in first week of October and be completed by December 2009.  SSFP was applauded by partners for taking the lead of coordinating with some big NGOs to assist smaller organizations who do not have Monitoring Officers to conduct the QMS.  This sharing of resources not only is cost efficient but helps with cross fertilization of experiences and best practices among the clinics.

Monitoring Officers and one Project Director of the Smiling Sun network are now confident to train others in different areas of new born care including child resuscitation, care of low birth weight babies and the identification of danger signs.  The new cohort successfully completed the two days Training of Trainers (ToT) course on Essential Newborn on 1 October 2009.

SSFP collaborated with Saving Newborn Lives of Save the Children-USA and Obstetrics and Gynecological Society of Bangladesh (OGSB) for this activity.

Improving postnatal care is critical for the health of mothers and newborns particularly given only 18% of newborns received care from a trained provider within two days of birth (BDHS, 2007). Studies show that essential newborn care substantially increase the survival of the new born.

The National level trainers used various methodologies, including demonstrations on dummies and evidence-based video clips so that the participants easily understood proper positioning and attachment for breast feeding.

The trainees of this training, held at Asia Pacific Blossom Hotel, Dhaka, will train Smiling Sun Paramedics and Service Promoters (SPs) at the regional level. In turn Paramedics and SPs will train the CSPs at the clinic level on essential newborn care.

Mr. Michel Owen, Deputy Assistant Secretary, USAID-Asia visited the Smiling Sun Ultra clinic in Aftabnagor, Dhaka on September 09, 2009. He was accompanied by Ms. Lily Kak, Acting OPHN Director, by Mr. Kishan Chrakraborty, COTR of SSFP, by Dr. Sukumar Saker and other US embassy and USAID staff. They toured the clinic and interacted with patients, clinic staff and PSTC (partnering NGO) counterparts. The Executive Director of PSTC Mr. Milan Bikash Paul made a short presentation about his organization and its productive relationship with SSFP.

The Aftabnagor clinic has today an average cost recovery index of 70%, which is significantly higher than the 40% it had just a little over a year ago when it was launched. During the same period it has increased its services to the poorest of the poor from almost nothing 5 months ago to almost 6% now, which is an important figure considering the area where the clinic is located.

Mr. Owen could hear directly from the clients about their satisfaction with Smiling Sun because of its quality, affordability and care.  When USAID officials asked whether they would tell others to get the health services from SSFP clinic, the clients responded positively.

Smiling Sun Clinic of Lalmonirhat is located at Khorddo Shaptana at the side of the main road towards Lalominhat town.This clinic was started during RSDP period by Unnata Paribar Gathon Mohila Sangstha (UPGMS) an organization based in Rangpur and still they are continuing. This clinic converted as a vital clinic and it was the 26th launched clinic of Smiling Sun Network up to December 2008.

Dr. Md. Abdus Sobhan, Civil Surgeon of Lalmonirhat district attended the program as chief guest. Mr. Golam Nabi Chowdhury Family Planning Officer of Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazilla, Dr. Salima Rahman Guiney Specialist & Director Community Health Program of RDRS Bangladesh (A National NGO), Captain (Rtd.) Azizul Islam Bir Protik member of the Clinic Advisory Committee, Ms. Marhamatun Nesa General Secretary of UPGMS, Mr. Entajur Rahman Principal of Shek Shafiuddin Commerce Collage Lalmonirhat also attended the program as special guest.

The launching ceremony was presided over by Dr. Hazera Khatun president of UPGMS. In his speech Dr. Md. Abdus Sobhan, Civil Surgeon, Lalmonirhat said, it is not achievable by the Government alone to ensure health services for the entire citizen; the effort and support needs from every angle. He said, Smiling Sun Clinic contributing in this area with quality and care. He also said, family planning coverage especially permanent methods needs to be increased in future to control the population explosion. He promised to extend all kind of related support to Smiling Sun Clinic. All the speakers expressed their satisfaction about the clinic look and layout and quality of service provided from the clinic. They have committed to support the clinic to provide better services in the community.

A day long health mela was held in front of the Smiling Sun Clinic area. 60 infants participated in the healthy baby show and three babies were declared as healthy baby with pre-sat criteria determined by the physicians of UPGMS. Including 22 ANC, 08 PNC, about 100 customers received different free services and 1500 community people participated in the event and enjoyed the cultural program and health mela. The launching ceremony in the Smiling Sun Clinic was successful. Community people spontaneously joined the different events organized by the clinics. It is hoped that the launching of the clinic with a new face will create a special attraction for the customer.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Smiling Sun Health Services (SSHS) and Bangladesh Garments Manufacturing & Exporters Association (BGMEA) on March 11, 2009 at the BGMEA premises. Dr. Akhtar Iqbal Begum, Director of Trustee Board, Smiling Sun Health Services (SSHS) and Mr. Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury, President of the BGMEA  and Mr. Sharfuddin Ahmed Sharif, Chairman, Standing Committee on Healthcare and Family Planning, BGMEA signed the MOU.

The signing ensures that BGMEA will get interested member factories to refer their garments workers to five selected Smiling Sun Clinics in the locality of Tongi, Aftabnagar, Hazaribagh, Mirpur and Keraniganj for their healthcare.

This will be a pilot program to provide health services to 10,000 garment workers under BGMEA for an initial span of 6 months. At the end of this pilot program SSHS will have provided access to healthcare to about 10,000 garment workers and encourage behavior change within them to enhance the quality of life through better health.

Ms. Margot Ellis, Deputy Assistant Administrator; Ms. Denise Rollins, USAID/Bangladesh Mission Director; Dr. Sukumar Sarker, PHN Team/USAID along with other USAID officials visited the fully converted Smiling Sun Health Service clinic in Aftabnagor, operated by PSTC.  Ms. Ellis, Ms. Rollins and Dr. Sarker interacted with clinic employees and clients to gain a better understanding of the work and benefits of the Smiling Sun Franchise Program (SSFP). During discussions with clinic clients they noted their willingness to pay for services offered by Smiling Sun – their reasoning: these are “reasonable rates for good quality services.”  USAID officials also learned of the partnership SSFP and PSTC have fostered to bring this new approach, which required a change in mindset, to fruition.