Community Action on Zika Project reaches more than 13 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean
After three consecutive years of implementation, the Community Action against Zika (CAZ) project has finished with excellent results.
In 2015, an epidemic generated by the Zika virus affected thousands of people in Latin America and the Caribbean. A year later, Save the Children, together with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and with the financial support of USAID, implemented an intervention to protect, prevent and respond to the Zika virus outbreak in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Colombia.
The CAZ project aimed to strengthen the capacity of communities and individuals to prevent Zika through behavioural changes in vulnerable populations and, at the same time, increase communities’ capacity to actively participate in community vector surveillance and control measures.
"The project, which started as a humanitarian response to the Zika virus, allowed us to reach millions of people and, over time, link this emergency action to long-term development objective. This was reinforced by a social and behaviour change strategy with risk communication. Above all, the project allowed us to guarantee child survival by reducing the consequences of Zika", said Victoria Ward, Regional Director of Save the Children for Latin America.
"CAZ managed to mobilize communities for the prevention of Zika and other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and produce positive changes in preventive behaviours and protection against Zika and its risks. Families whose babies were affected by the Zika virus received psychosocial support and their babies were engages in early stimulation exercises to develop cognitive and psychomotor skills. The entire community participated in vector control actions. The project demonstrated that communities have a high capacity to respond to an epidemic such as Zika." said Ariel Habed, Director of the CAZ project." Among the achievements of the project, we strengthened capacities in more than 900 communities. We mobilized more than 13 thousand volunteers and reached more than 13 million people with key communication messages in 5 countries.”
The CAZ project aimed to strengthen the capacity of communities and individuals to prevent Zika through behavioural changes in vulnerable populations and, at the same time, increase communities’ capacity to actively participate in community vector surveillance and control measures.
"The project, which started as a humanitarian response to the Zika virus, allowed us to reach millions of people and, over time, link this emergency action to long-term development objective. This was reinforced by a social and behaviour change strategy with risk communication. Above all, the project allowed us to guarantee child survival by reducing the consequences of Zika", said Victoria Ward, Regional Director of Save the Children for Latin America.
"CAZ managed to mobilize communities for the prevention of Zika and other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and produce positive changes in preventive behaviours and protection against Zika and its risks. Families whose babies were affected by the Zika virus received psychosocial support and their babies were engages in early stimulation exercises to develop cognitive and psychomotor skills. The entire community participated in vector control actions. The project demonstrated that communities have a high capacity to respond to an epidemic such as Zika." said Ariel Habed, Director of the CAZ project." Among the achievements of the project, we strengthened capacities in more than 900 communities. We mobilized more than 13 thousand volunteers and reached more than 13 million people with key communication messages in 5 countries.”
Achieving the results of the project would not have been possible without the participation of the students and young people who volunteered as agents of community mobilization. More than 9,000 children in the five intervention countries acted as agents of change, promoting Zika prevention practices in their schools, homes and communities. Maribel, a community mobilization agent in the Dominican Republic, said, "At the beginning, I didn't want to participate. But when I participated more I ended up fully involved. I didn't know anything about Zika. Now I know about the disease and how to prevent it."
More than 1,000,000 people were reached directly through interpersonal communication activities during the project activities and more than 12,000.000 received messages indirectly through the use of mass media such as radio spots and social networks.
