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.

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.

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.  

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.  

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.

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.