PILOT IMPLEMENTATION

What are we learning?

Sarari has launched in five villages in the Zinder region: Bandé, Doukoum Doukoum, Gragoumssa, Hamdara, and Yékoua.

To date, 555 men and 14 women have directly participated in the pilot. Midterm findings indicate that Sarari has significant potential and reach to create an enabling environment for reproductive health amongst religious leaders and youth:

Over 30 sessions on birth spacing and maternal health in two villages have been delivered in Koranic schools by members of Leaders Engagés, with nearly 250 pupils in attendance.
Over 35 Séminaire des Leaders debates on the topic of birth spacing have taken place between religious leaders and youth in two villages alone, with approximately 200 people in attendance.
Among those participants who participated in Dede Ruwa Dede Tsaki, 79% reported a 50% reduction in number of desired children following the financial planning exercise.

Expansion to Female Leaders

While initially not a part of the program design given the focus on husbands, young men reported going door-to-door during live prototyping to recruit women to participate in the financial planning exercise.

Similarly, during the pilot, women across implementing villages advocated strongly that female religious leaders be trained in under Sarari.

As a result, 43 men and 14 women have been trained to deliver sessions with Sarari interventions, especially those given in Koranic schools.

Continued Iterations

Throughout the pilot stage, religious leaders and youth have continued to iterate upon Sarari data collection and programmatic tools in order to best suit their needs.

Religious leaders have altered the self-reporting tools for Leaders Engagés to reflect now three separate booklets to monitor number of sermons, koranic school lessons, and private consultations given.

Meanwhile, youth participants added new expense categories for the Dede Ruwa Dede Tsaki financial planning tool: transportation, airtime and charging costs associated with mobile phones, and fire wood used for cooking purposes.

Pilot in Photos

Initial cohort of recruited participants attending Sarari pilot launch along with PSI Niger and local implementing NGO representatives

Recruitment session with religious leaders at a local mosque in Gragoumssa

Training and recruitment of youth leaders in Bandé to the Dede Ruwa Dede Tsaki and Séminaire des Leaders activities

Materials for the Leaders Engagés activity ready to be distributed

Freshly painted signs for Dede Ruwa Dede Tsaki to be given to participating fadas across implementing villages

Self-reporting tool used by Leaders Engagés participants to track sessions given at the Koranic school