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News Brief Archive
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Editor:
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Juan Carlos. Negrette
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Smiling Sun Franchise Program(SSFP)
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House: 15/A, Road: 35,
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Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212
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GHI teams visit Smiling Sun Clinics in Chittagong and Sylhet
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CoP of SSFP explaining the quality aspects of services to GHI team
at Smiling Sun Anowara Clinic.
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Ms. Lynn Adrian and one of her team members looking at a facility
at Smiling Sun Sylhet clinic.
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Two teams from US Government’s Global Health Initiatives (GHI) have visited
Smiling Sun Clinics in Chittagong and Sylhet. The objectives of the visits were
to develop understanding of public and NGO healthcare delivery system in
Bangladesh, its implementation modalities and challenges at district and
community level.
The GHI interagency team-1, led by Ms. Karen Cavanaugh, Health Science
Specialist with GHI Launch Team, visited the Smiling Sun Anowara clinic on
August 31, 2010. The other members of the team were Ken Castro, Winnie Roberts,
Steve Luby, Khadijat Mojidi, Dr. Sukumar Sarkar, Dr. Sharmina Sultana, and
Lindsey Garcia. Mr. Juan Carlos Negrette, CoP of SSFP, received them at SS
Anowara clinic.
GHI interagency team-2 visited Sylhet Clinic of SSKS on 1 September 2010. Mr
Denis Sharma, Deputy Mission Director of USAID led the team. The other team
members were Ms. Lynn Adrian, Mr. Daniel Singer and Umme Salma Jahan Meena.
Brig. Gen (Rtd) Dr. Shahid Khan, MD of SSFP, facilitated the visit in Sylhet.
Both the teams toured the clinic facilities and talked to
the service providers, waiting customers and served customers of the clinics.
SSFP made presentations on the network as well as activities in local areas. The
team-1 has also visited a satellite clinic near the Anowara clinic and talked to
the people at the local community to develop an understanding of the local
health needs. The team-2 expressed their happy feelings over the effort that the
network has been taking to improve the quality of lives of millions of
Bangladeshis by providing affordable, high quality health services in a
sustainable manner.
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CHT Smiling Sun static clinics start operations
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Mayor panel 3 of the Rangamati Municipality, Ms Monowara Begum,
inaugurated Smiling Sun Rangamati clinic on August 30, 2010.
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Service promoters and CSPs at Khagrachori clinic welcoming guests and customers.
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Smiling Sun clinics in the country’s
remotest Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) districts began operations officially with
static and satellite clinic services. Smiling Sun Rangamati clinic was launched
in a modest way on Aug 30, 2010, while Smiling Sun Bandarban and Khagrachori
clinics were launched on September 1 and 2, 2010 respectively.
All the three clinics have formed a static
clinic support group each consisting of 11 members, including local government
representatives, school teachers, area councilor, journalists and other local
influential people for smooth functioning of operations. Satellite clinics
have started functioning at least two weeks ago in surrounding localities. After
the discussion sessions, the clinics were declared open for all. On the opening
day, the clinics attracted a huge number of customers.
Chittagong based NGO
FDSR has been running these three clinics. Trained Medical Officers and
Paramedics have been recruited for all the three clinics.
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SSFP holds advocacy meeting with KCC Mayor
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A team from SSFP led by Brig. Gen. (Rtd) Dr. Shahid Khan, Managing Director,
called on Khulna City Corporation (KCC) Mayor, Mr. Talukdar Abdul Khaleque, on
23rd August 2010 to update him about Smiling Sun activities at Khulna City
Corporation areas. Mr. Tapan Kumar Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer and Dr. A.B.M.
Mahbubul Haque, Chief Health Officer of the Corporation, were also present at
the meeting.
Md Mozzammel Hoque, Senior Policy Adviser of SSFP,
briefed about the Smiling Sun Franchise Program and its relation to the GoB
while Mr. Abdul Motin, Franchise Operation Officer, explained about Smiling Sun
activities, its NGOs association and last one year performance in Khulna City
Corporation areas in terms of health and family planning services.
The KCC Mayor was pleased to have a clear idea about SSFP activities and
opted for more coordination between SSFP and City Corporation. He suggested for
incorporation of City corporation personnel in clinic monitoring. The Mayor was
also keen to donate a piece of land for construction of Smiling Sun clinic
building and accommodate one Smiling Sun clinic at a building to be constructed
soon.
Khulna City Corporation has been supporting SSFP through providing 13 clinic
buildings and allocation of areas for services in 16 wards.
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SSFP briefs new Health Secretary about SSFP
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A team from SSFP led by Chief of Party
Juan Carlos Negrette called on Md. Humayun Kabir, the newly appointed Secretary
of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and briefed him about the Smiling
Sun activities. Brig. Gen. (Rtd) Dr. Shahid Khan, Managing Director, and Md
Mozzammel Hoque, Senior Policy Adviser of SSFP accompanied him. Md. Helal Uddin,
Deputy Chief of Planning, was also present at the meeting. The Secretary thanked
CoP for updating him about Smiling Sun and showed interest to visit SSFP clinics
at any convenient time.
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Tripartite Review Meeting recommends more services to poor
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A Tripartite Review Meeting
involving representatives from the Government, USAID and the Smiling Sun
Franchise Program (SSFP) was held at Dhaka Sheraton on August 4, 2010. Mr. Md.
Mofazzal Hossain, Director General of the Implementation Monitoring and
Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Government’s Ministry of Planning who is also
a Member of the Program Steering Committee of USAID/Bangladesh Health and
Population Program (UBHPP), chaired the meeting. Shawn Malarcher, Deputy
Director (A) and Sharmina Sultana, Program Management Specialist represented
USAID while Ms. Betsy Bassan, Senior Vice President of Chemonics International
and Mr. Jim Griffin, Director of Chemonics, were present at the meeting. The
purpose of the meeting was to review project achievements, approach key areas
needing improvement and gain GoB support for upcoming SSFP activities, in
preparation for Year 4 work planning activities.
The government representatives
at the meeting opined that the main emphasis of SSFP should be to reach
hard-to-reach areas where GoB services are limited. The services of SSFP in
hard-to-reach areas should be totally free considering the higher density of
poor population. They also emphasized on uniform MIS reporting format and more
joint visits to the clinic sites for better coordination of the programs.
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MoHFW senior official visits Smiling Sun clinics
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Smiling Sun has organized a joint visit with a senior government official at Bogra and Rajshahi
Clinics on July 30 and 31, 2010. Engineer Abdullah Al Mamun, Senior Assistant
Chief (Planning) of the Minister of Health and Family Welfare represented the
government while visiting smiling sun clinics in Namajghar, Bogra and in
Naodapara, Rajshahi.
Ms. Murshida Morshed, Project Director of Tilottama, received the government official at Bogra and
Rajshahi clinics. She explained about the number and quality of services
provided at the smiling Sun Clinics. Mr. Mamun toured different sections of the
clinics and talked to the customers and clinic staffs about the services,
service charges and services to the poor peoples in the catchment area. He also
wanted to know about how the satellite teams were working in different areas.
He was pleased to see activities of the Smiling Sun clinics and assured all sorts of cooperation if
required in future from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to serve the
people of the community.
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SSFP holds year-4 work plan workshop
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The year-4 work plan workshop of
SSFP was held at Spectra Convention Center during August 8-10, 2010. Dr. Kanta
Jamil, Director, OPHNE of USAID and Sharmina Sultana, Program Management
Specialist of USAID were present on the first day of the workshop. Ms. Betsy
Bassan, Senior Vice President of Chemonics International and Mr. Jim Griffin,
Director of Chemonics provided technical assistance at the workshop. Earlier on
August 5 and on August 4, 2010, there were NGO consultation meeting and
Tripartite Review Meeting with a view to reviewing project achievements,
approach key areas needing improvement and gain GoB support for upcoming SSFP
activities, in preparation for Year 4 work planning activities. Some good
suggestions and expectations came out from these meetings which would help
prepare the year-4 work plan more realistic.
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Smiling Sun Clinics captures three national awards in family planning
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Ms. Shahana Parvin of PD of MMKS receiving the national award on family
planning.
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Smiling Sun frontline workers take part in the rally on the occasion of World Population Day 2010.
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In recognition of the role in providing consumer driven family planning options
to people, Smiling Sun affiliated NGOs captured three of the six divisional
awards for best NGOs working in family planning. These awards were bestowed by
the Government of Bangladesh in honor of World Population Day this year. MMKS
for their work in Rajoir in Madaripur, Paribar Kallyan Samity (PKS) for their
work in Khulna, and Swanirvar Bangladesh (Smiling Sun Clinic) in Lalmohan,
Bhola, Barisal all received awards. Among them Smiling Sun Clinic, Lalmohan got
the award for the third consecutive year.
Hon’ble President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Mr. Md. Zillur Rahman
was the chief guest at the award giving ceremony held at Osmani Auditorium in
Dhaka on July 11, 2010. Mr. AFM Ruhal Huq, Minister for Health and Family
Welfare, Prof. Dr. Syed Modasser Ali, Advisor to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr.
Capt. (Rtd) Mozibur Rahman Fakir, and Mr. Arthur Erken, UNFPA Representative in
Bangladesh attended the ceremony as special guests.
Prior to the awards giving ceremony, the frontline workers of Smiling Sun NGOs
take part in a big rally that moved from the National Museum to Osmani
Auditorium to raise awareness about family planning.
Smiling Sun clinics provide a balanced method mix of family planning services to
its customers that include all modern methods (from short to long term). This
allows clinics to maintain a high service output while ensuring customers are
able to choose the most appropriate method for their needs.
Speakers on the occasion said that the total fertility rates have decreased
dramatically over the last 36 years in Bangladesh from 6.3 births per woman in
1971 to 2.7 in 2006. In a related fashion contraceptive prevalence rates have
continued to climb from 8 percent in 1975 to 56 percent in 2007.
As an avid partner of the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts, the USAID-funded
Smiling Sun network of 320 clinics plays a significant role in ensuring short
and long term family planning methods are available to all clients. Since
October 2007 until May 2010, Surjer Hashi Clinics have provided over 32 million
family planning services across the country. These include 22 millions pills
(cycle), 4.8 million injections, 3.8 million condoms, 28,000 IUD, 7,000
Norplant, 1,000 NSV and 1,500 tubectomy services.
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PAC Identifies possible areas of cooperation
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The second meeting of the SSFP Program Advisory Committee (PAC) was held at
the Lake Shore Hotel Conference room in Dhaka on June 17, 2010 to identify areas
of potential development and collaboration with Government and other
stakeholders. Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan, Joint Chief, Planning, Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare (MOHFW) chaired the meeting while Mr. Mohammad Abdul Qayyum,
Director General, Directorate General of Family Planning was the Chief Guest,
and Dr. A B M Jahangir Alam, Director, PHC and LD, ESD was present as the
Special Guest. USAID COTR, Krishnapada Chakraborty and representatives from
UNICEF, GTZ, WHO and ICDDR,B were also present at the meeting.
The objectives of the meeting were to provide the program’s stakeholders a
better understanding of SSFP’s achievements so far in the health sector. As SSFP
enters its last year, it has convened the meeting to ensure that gains to date
remain and that future and present challenges are addressed so the program can
project its legacy into the future, supporting the Government of Bangladesh to
achieve health, population and social objectives.
The government officials recommended that a dialogue regarding partnership
related to community clinics as well as monitoring and quality control could be
initiated immediately. Speaking as chief guest, Mohammad Abdul Qayyum said that
the Government was keen to support to Smiling Sun to expand its services in the
coastal areas in the south, hilly areas in the south-east and remote haor areas
in Sylhet. By developing service system network it is still possible to achieve
sustainability, he said.
The Chief of Party (COP) of SSFP Juan Carlos Negrette outlined an overview
and activities of SSFP to date, collaborations with GoB, third party payers and
other organizations, quality control systems, financial monitoring tools,
performance by indicators over two and a half years and way forward.
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SSFP organizes 10th CQC meeting
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The 10th Clinical Quality Council (CQC) meeting of SSFP was held on 24 June
2010 at Spectra Convention Centre in Dhaka to review quality monitoring at
clinic level. The meeting was participated by all Monitoring Officers and some
Program Managers, Project Directors of NGOs in SSFP. Mr. Juan Carlos Negrette,
Chief of Party of SSFP, inaugurated the meeting while Dr. Mark Pietroni, Medical
Director of ICDDRB and Dr. Yukie Yoshimura, the Chief Advisor, SMPP of JICA were
present as resource persons.
Dr. Mark Pietroni of ICDDRB presented different aspects of quality in
healthcare delivery to the audience. Dr. Yukie Yoshimura, the Chief Advisor,
SMPP of JICA applauded the quality aspects in delivering health care in SSFP.
The key findings of quality indicators in observation module of the 3rd QMS were
shared in the meeting.
In his welcoming remarks, the COP applauded the role of Monitoring Officers
in accelerating the quality of service delivery as a flagship issue in Smiling
Sun Clinics. He also focused on the leadership and cultural components as a
critical issue for augmenting quality of care.
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IMED DG visits Smiling Sun Clinics
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Mr. Md. Mofazzal Hossain, Director General of the Implementation, Monitoring
and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Government’s Ministry of Planning who is
also a Member of the Program Steering Committee of USAID/Bangladesh Health and
Population Program (UBHPP), visited Smiling Sun Clinics in Aftabnagar and Adabar
in Dhaka on June 16, 2010. During his
visit Md. Mozzammel Hoque, SPA and Dr. Kamran Mehedi from SSFP accompanied him.
Mr. Hossain toured different sections of the clinics and talked to the customers
and staff members. He observed that the promotional activities of Smiling Sun
clinics should be strengthened further to attract more customers. The DG
expressed his satisfaction to see the clinic activities and assured further
support from the Government.
The DG of IMED looking at a baby who was
born a few minutes ago at Smiling Sun Clinic, Aftabnagar, Dhaka.
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SSFP partners with Save the Children to build functional linkage
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Smiling Sun Franchising Project (SSFP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with Save the Children (SC), USA, on May 31, 2010 to establish a
functional linkage between them. Both the organizations have agreed to pilot a
partnership where existing Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) of Jibon-O-Jibika
(JOJ) program of SC will become either SSFP’s community service providers or
develop a functional relationship with SSFP clinics to increase access to
clinical services in Barisal and Bhola districts. The duration of the MoU will
be valid until September 2011.
As part of the agreement, SSFP will explore if SC trained
CHV could be employed as SSFP CSP or using CHV as focal persons for community
mobilization and established a formal referral linkage with all SSFP’s service
delivery points.
Jibon-O-Jibika is a household Food Security program of Save
the Children funded by USAID under P.L.-480 program. The overarching goal of the
Jibon-O-Jibika project is to decrease household food insecurity in select
upazilas of three districts in Barisal Division.
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Smiling Sun paramedics receive best performer awards
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Four paramedics of Smiling Sun Patuakhali and Barguna clinics received the ‘Best
Performer Award’ in Barisal division in recognition of their outstanding
performance in family planning, maternal and child health services. The award
winners are Mahfuza Akhter of Smiling Sun clinic, Patuakhali, and Thamina
Akhter, Monta Rani Das and Niamatunnesa of Smiling Sun clinic, Barguna. Mr.
Abdul Qayyum, Director General of Family Planning, distributed the certificates
among the best performing front line Family Planning Workers in Barisal at a
workshop organized on the occasion of "Safe Motherhood Day 2010" on 30th May
2010.
The Directorate of Health and Family Planning has organized such initiative to
encourage field level workers for achieving government’s targets in the field of
health and family planning. The awards were given based on the criteria such as
number of services provided, quality of care and quality of services etc.
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DDBF sponsors SSFP’s cervical and breast cancer prevention campaign
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The Dutch-Bangla Bank Foundation (DDBF) has sponsored the campaign for creating
awareness in prevention and screening of cervical and breast diseases. Mr. Sayem
Ahmed, Chairman of EC of the Board, handed over a cheque of Tk 190,000 as one
time donation to SSFP representative on June 3, 2010 at a simple ceremony at the
Bank’s Dikusha office, Dhaka. Through this donation SSFP will print health
benefit cards for screening of cervical and breast diseases.
SSFP has been providing screening services for cervical and breast diseases in
12 clinics in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet.
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SSFP holds orientation meetings on launching health program in CHT
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The Smiling Sun has finally kicked off its long awaiting endeavor to launch health program in the
country’s remotest Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) areas. As part of the program,
SSFP organized orientation and advocacy meetings with three Hill District
authorities during June 2-7, 2010. Mr. Kujendra Lal Tripura, Chairman of
Khagrachori Hill District Council, Mr. Nikhil Kumar Chakma, Chairman of
Rangamati Hill District Council, and Mr. Mizanur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner of
Bandarban Hill District were the chief guests at the programs. Masuma Binte
Kadir, a Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tract Affairs
attended the meting in Khagrachari while Mr. Khalilur Rahman, Deputy Chief of
Planning of the same ministry attended the meting in Rangamati and Bandarban on
behalf of the CHT Affairs Ministry. In addition, Chief Executive Officers of the
Hill district Councils, Civil Surgeons and other Government officials were
present.
The speakers at the meetings were of the view that health, agriculture and education have been the
most neglected, in spite of the fact that they remain as the top priority for
the hill districts. They expect that Smiling Sun clinics would extend their
services to the remote areas and poorest of the poor in the area. The speakers
gave emphasis on community participation as well as sustaining quality to
achieve the social objectives. The meetings, however, stressed the need for
establishing a robust, realistic strategy for launching the health program in
CHT. The local authority and administration expressed gratitude to SSFP and
USAID for initiating health services for the hill people.
According to a UN study, all indicators of health services and health status including the coverage
of expanded program on immunization (EPI), contraception, post natal care,
institutional delivery and child nutrition still remained weak. Malaria,
diarrhea, pneumonia, skin diseases, hepatitis and some venereal diseases are the
common health problem in the three hilly districts.
SSFP’s Chittagong-based partner NGO FDSR has been selected to implement the
health program in CHT. FDSR is now running 12 clinics in Chittagong and Cox’s
Bazar districts.
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