SOS consortium holds empowerment meetings with spray persons

The most active of the so called spray persons (those offering spraying of animals on commercial terms to farmers in the area) were in April 2010 called together for meetings geared towards empowering them to reach out to treating even more cattle and also other livestock. With support provided by IKARE and CEVA, over 75 spray persons have now been equipped with product knowledge and strategies that could enable them to individually spray more than 1,000 cattle per month.

Workshops on creating strategic partnerships with the animal owners were held under the guidance of High Heights Services ("HHS"). The chain that has been created since the start in May 2008 of the 3 V Vet activities in the area involves HHS, the 3V Vets and the spray persons with whom they work on a regular basis since the provision of the pump loans .Emphasis has been put to trust, reliability and engagement as the pillars that will enable to attract more farmers to the animal spray service. Through this approach, a minimum of 75,000 cattle could be sprayed with Vectocid (deltamethrin) on a monthly basis, doubling the number of cattle currently regularly sprayed. The partnership has however set ambitious targets to double this number to 150,000 livestock with focus on including also cattle and pigs. In order to be able to meet these targets, the spray persons will be needing additional support in terms of transportation (mainly bicycles) and additional business skills training as provided by HHS, with the continued support of IKARE and CEVA.

To enhance the visibility of the 3V Vets and spray persons as well as provide protection and comfort (as the spray persons are involved in larger scale spraying), a colourful overall, gloves, boots and a mask have been introduced.  These overalls also provide for easy identification by the farmers of spray persons belonging to the SOS network. As the overalls carry both the SOS and HHS logos, an assessment of qualifications is done before admittance into the network is agreed. To qualify the spray person needs to be hard-working, trusted, committed and come recommended by the 3V Vet or the District Veterinary Officer ("DVO")  as the partnership needs to be sure of the quality of their work outputs before agreeing to  include  them as a reliable SOS partner.

Components  of the Spray person work-shop and training.

Objectives

1. Empower the spray persons working with the 3V Vets with appropriate knowledge on SOS and the 3V Vet activities  to increase their understanding of the products to be used
2. To continuously refresh their knowledge on the advantages of using these products in terms of improved animal health and public health
3. Create a process which enables the spray persons to identify themselves with the SOS consortium.  Initially this is done through the protective wear which carries the SOS, HHS and Vectocid logo on the overall. The colour of the overall was carefully chosen to ensure that the spray persons are also protected from fly bites (e.g avoiding colours that relate to the tsetse trap - blue, black, white).
4. Show  the spray persons  that they are not operating in isolation but that they are a group, part of a network  and  as such they have channels where they can forward vital issues arising from the community that need to be discussed.
5. Increasing the knowledge of the veterinary services provided by the 3VVets and such products beneficial to tsetse control which are available through the network - all together enabling the number of cattle sprayed  on a regular basis to reach a minimum of 75,000 per month in the SOS phase I area
6. Give a clear message that if we keep working together, the chances of succeeding also commercially in the spray business are high, and that together we ,as communities, can achieve sustainable  tsetse control, enabling over time a movement towards the elimination of sleeping sickness in the target areas

By Prof. Charles Waiswa, Director High Heights Services Ltd and Coordinator 3V Vets, SOS and IKARE Initiative, P.O Box 21828, Kampala, hhsltd@yahoo.com