Step 4: Chart the Timing of Your Malaria Activities

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Two health center staff looking at a report. Photo Credit: PMI

Base your malaria activities’ timing on both the malaria transmission season in your area and the other malaria activities planned in local communities.

Aligning your activities with peak malaria times can help you better address malaria behaviors and communicate with your community when it matters most. The rainy season is typically a high malaria transmission period. Review your country, region, and community context to see which times of the year malaria spread is highest. Also, review the malaria interventions used in your area, including when during the year they take place. Push for good malaria behaviors in your community a few weeks before the high malaria season. Schedule times to remind households about these key behaviors throughout the season.

Next, find the other planned malaria activities in your local community. Activities might include World Malaria Day (every year on April 25), Southern African Development Community Malaria Day (every year on November 6, if you are in the region), or World Mosquito day (every year on August 20). You can time your malaria activities to build on other malaria activities. Confirm with your local malaria authority that your malaria activities do not conflict with other activities taking place in the community.

All activities should be time-bound to reflect, evaluate, and improve future activities. For example, while integrating malaria prevention messages into weekly sermons may be highly effective, this might also become repetitive for parishioners quickly. Think about how long each of your malaria activities will last and how you can expand on these projects in the future.

Example Tables to Help You Plan Activities:

Peak Malaria Transmission Season

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

Rainy Season

X

X

Planned Malaria Activities by Local Government

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

Maternal/Child Health

X

X

X

X

Insecticide Treated Nets

X

Case Management for Malaria

X

X

Blank Activity Timing Table: Word – (EN | FR | PT )

Blank Activity Timing Table: PDF – (EN | FR | PT )

Want to Learn More?

Resources – Using Malaria SBC in Your Work