Society for Family Health (SFH), Rwanda is a non-profit organization positioned to be the largest social marketing organization in Rwanda. It is an affiliate of Population Services International (PSI) and will be continuing PSI's work all across the country.
Working in partnership within the public and private sectors, and harnessing the power of the markets, SFH will be providing life-saving products, clinical services and social and behavior change communications (SBCC) that empower Rwanda's most vulnerable populations to lead healthier lives.
SFH implements diverse public health interventions in HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, malaria, and maternal and child health including nutrition.
Sectors and Services
HIV & AIDS Prevention
SFH's HIV program includes social marketing of HIV products and services and targeted HIV communication activities which combine mass media, interpersonal communication (IPC), community mobilization, and advocacy. As part of the HIV prevention program, SFH will implement social marketing of branded condoms. SFH acts as the principal agent for the distribution of the PSI’s established brands and has recently introduced new brands like PLASIR. The HIV field activities include HIV counseling and testing, STIs and TB screening, male circumcision, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and family planning/HIV integration and collectively comprise a complete package of services to reduce HIV transmission among youth and MARPs.
Malaria Control
SFH, Rwanda provides malaria control support to Ministry of Health. SFH's malaria control programs include delivery of insecticide treated mosquito nets, pre-packaged malaria treatment, social and behaviour change communications on prevention and treatment, communications on household indoor residual spraying (IRS) and operational research.
Safe Water Program
SFH act as PSI’s principal distribution agent in Rwanda for its two point-of-use safe water products: Sur’Eau and PUR. Sur'Eau is a 1.25% sodium hypochlorite solution which is used to disinfect water at low cost; one bottle of Sur'Eau can treat 1,000 liters of water. PUR not only disinfects water, but it also binds with particulate matter which settles to the bottom of a bucket and can be filtered out, leaving clean water that is safe to drink. Each sachet of PUR powder treats 10 liters of water.
Reproductive Health Program
SFH empowers women and couples to lead healthier lives by providing access to family planning and maternal health products and services. In partnership with the Ministry of Health and donors, SFH provides family planning products and services through training, community outreach and multi-media campaigns on family planning methods to increase access to family planning and to overcome the barriers that prevent women from using modern contraceptives. Reproductive Health programs are promoted through adolescents in established youth centers managed in collaboration with Rwanda National Youth Council (RNYC) and Ministry of Youth (MINIYOUTH).
Nutrition Program
SFH supports key components of the implementation of Behavior Change Communication) of the Rwanda's National Multi-sectoral Strategy to Eliminate Malnutrition. Through donor funding, SFH is able to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in coordination with other partners to develop high quality printed materials, design and support radio programs, and explore the use of the existing network of Rwandan Partner Organizations structure to support the nutrition program implementation.
Research, Monitorig & Evaluation
SFH uses research, monitoring and evaluation to improve interventions by giving program staff the information they need for evidence-based decision making. Performance is measured by the effectiveness of interventions in changing behaviors, equity in the practice of those behaviors, and the cost-effectiveness of interventions in terms of the unit cost of delivering outputs per disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) gained. To achieve this, SFH will use proven social marketing methodologies which are used by PSI around the world.
