SSFP has been pursuing for strategic partnerships to raise additional funds in support of the FMO and provide quality healthcare services for the poorest of the poor. So far, MOU’s were signed with the Bangladesh Garments Manufaturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Chevron Bangladesh, Family Health International (FHI), Acme Laboratories, Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh Limited and British-American Tobacco Bangladesh Ltd for joint collaboration in various services. Proposals were sent to both Emirates and Maersk Line with the goal of increasing service contacts while simultaneously reaching the poorest clients through third party payers. A proposal was sent to CEMEX in September with the goal of managing a community clinic for CEMEX in Narayanganj; a vast CSR intervention. Potential partnerships from the previous quarter are still in different stages of materialization.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). This agreement opens the door for Smiling Sun clinics to offer services to participating garment factories at a per-capitation based fee.

ICDDR, B. The Smiling Sun Network teamed up with the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh’s (ICDDR,B) SUZY (Scaling-up Zinc for Young Children) Project to strengthen the capacity of SSFP’s clinical service providers to treat diarrhea with zinc tablets to reduce the occurrence, reoccurrence, and severity of diarrhea cases in children under five. ICDDR,B has trained all network monitoring officers and staff from six Smiling Sun clinics (belonging to six different franchisees in and around Dhaka) how to recognize diarrhea cases, how to treat them, how/when zinc should be administered, why zinc should be administered in conjunction with oral re-hydration salts (ORS), and when to refer severe cases to a higher level treatment center. Smiling Sun monitoring officers have begun providing cascade training to their clinic staff.

Chevron Bangladesh. This year, SSFP and Chevron developed a partnership that resulted in the donation of a clinic by Chevron to the SSHS franchise. Chevron supports SSFP’s double bottom line approach and will be working with SSFP and SSKS to improve the sustainability of the Chevron-donated clinic. The partnership with Chevron Bangladesh was strengthened through the launch of the Shastipur Smiling Sun Clinic in Sylhet in August. The launch was coordinated by SSFP and attended by the Health Minister as the chief guest, the President of Chevron Bangladesh, Mission Director of USAID.

Grameenphone’s Safe Motherhood and Infant Care Project (SMIC). Grameenphone, through Pathfinder International, reimburses costs for ante-natal care visits, delivery (normal and c-section), post-natal visits and IMCI consultations for the poorest of the poor customers at all 319 Smiling Sun network clinics. To better track this collaboration SSFP developed a separate module in its existing MIS database to capture data related to the SMIC project. All Project Directors and MIS Officers were trained on the record keeping and reporting system to ensure an information flow from clinic to NGO HQ and NGO HQ to SSFP. In addition, Grameenphone donated five ambulances to NGOs in the network to shorten response time to emergencies and transfer/refer patients to larger facilities when the need arises.

ACME. SSFP partnered with ACME Laboratories, a leading pharmaceutical company, to control diarrheal diseases. Under this partnership ACME provided the design time, 10,000 posters, 6,000 bookmarks, and 100,000 leaflets to the network’s CDD promotion intervention that was launched the first week of June.

Family Health International (FHI). SSFP signed an MOU with FHI’s Bangladesh HIV/AIDS project and launched two pilot satellite clinics in FHI’s Integrated Health Centers (IHC). This unique collaboration provides a full range of family planning, maternal health and limited curative care services to the female sex workers who visit the IHC, who may not otherwise seek care. Satellite teams from SSFP partner Concerned Women for Family Development (CWFD) are now providing testing services (e.g. pregnancy test, blood sugar, blood grouping etc.), beyond HIV tests the IHC previously provided, and access to modern contraceptive methods.

Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh Limited. SSFP along with two of its partner NGOs - CWFD, SWANIRVAR signed a MoU on October 8 with Reckitt Benckiser, just a week before the World Hand Washing Day. This initiative was taken to cooperate in a mutual effort to create awareness about disease prevention through a hand-washing campaign at the clinic outlets and satellite spots in 61 districts of Bangladesh. 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 signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.

This MOU seeks to implement a pilot program through 13 Smiling Sun Clinics in Tangail that has a catchment of 178,000 families. This program shall run for an initial time span of six months, with the notion of scale up if the pilot is a success. Under this pilot, Reckitt Benckiser Limited will provide Dettol soaps at a reduced price and promotional materials to the Smiling Sun Program that consists of 25,000 posters for the static clinics and the surrounding communities, 50 banners for the satellite teams in Tangail and 500 bags to carry soap by the Community Service Providers (CSPs). A total number of 480 CSPs will be assigned to carry soap to the communities together with other reproductive health products and ORS. The 20% discount on the soaps will help the CSPs and the clinics to make some revenue on each unit sold.