Nepal CRS Company

NEPAL CRS COMPANY (नेपाल सिआर एस कम्पनी)

With the assistance of USAID, Nepal CRS Company, a forerunner in social marketing in Nepal, launched its first condom brand, Dhaal, and oral contraceptive brand, Gulaf, in 1978. Since that time, CRS has solidified its position as a major force behind the expansion of Nepal's private healthcare industry. Through its creative social marketing strategies and wide distribution network, it continues to successfully distribute low-cost family planning (FP), maternal child health (MCH), and other health items. About 25% of the nation's overall FP achievements for reversible approaches come from CRS (NDHS 2011). Up to this point, CRS has introduced 13 FP, HIV prevention, MCH, and several of its products have gained widespread recognition across the nation.

Vision

• CRS Social marketing making lives healthier in Nepal

Mission

• To improve the national health status by changing behavior and increasing access to health products and services.

Projects of Nepal CRS Company

• Possible Severe Bacterial Infection (PSBI) Project
  • With the assistance of Save the Children International (SCI), Nepal CRS Company is implementing a pilot study on Possible Severe Bacterial Infection (PSBI) in the district of Kavre. The project intends to make the Nepal Government's Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) regimen for the treatment of PSBI available through Private Medical Shops/Service Provider.
  • The Child Health Division (CHD) and District Health Office (DHO)-Kavre offered technical assistance so that CRS could teach $2 medical shops over two days on the IMNCI treatment methodology for PSBI cases. The training gave private medical practices the knowledge necessary to recognize cases and know what steps to take next to treat PSBI properly.
  • The trial project ran for almost nine months before coming to a conclusion in March 2019. The main result of the project was to use this initiative as a model, allowing private medical practices to treat PSBI at the local level using the standardized IMNCI procedure. This initiative can then be scaled up to help the government's efforts to lower infant mortality.
• Cycle Beads
  • The social marketing of the Cycle Beads initiative under the FACT pilot project of IRH, sponsored by USAID, was given to CRS in October 2016. The project's primary goal is to advance the Standard Days Method (SDM) using Cycle Beads' social marketing (Malachakra). Banke and Bardiya, two districts in Nepal's mid-west, are where the project is being carried out. The selection of these districts was based on CRS' involvement in spreading FP techniques in cooperation with other IPS HC3s and SIFPO.
  • A woman's menstrual cycle is depicted by the color-coded strand of beads known as Cycle Beads. It assists women in keeping track of their cycles, recognizing fertile and infertile days, and ensuring that their cycles are within the acceptable range for using this family planning technique. The target population of the project is married women in the 18-35 years age group, residing in semi-urban. and rural areas. The objectives of the project are to:
    • To expand FP service options through social marketing of Cycle Beads (Malachakra).
    • Raise awareness among women on Cycle Beads
• Project on Misoprostol
  • To lower the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) that currently exists in Nepal, the Nepal CRS Company, in collaboration with Venture Strategies Innovations (VSI), and Nepal Fertility Care Center (NFCC), introduced "Project on Misoprostol" for the prevention of Post-Partum Hemorrhage (PPH) through the Sangini Social Franchising Network.
  • Misoprostol was distributed from 46 Sangini Outlets in the Bardiya district under the brand name "Matri Surakchya Chakki" as part of a project that lasted from March 2008 to October 2009. Four additional districts were added to the product's distribution area: Banke, Rupendehi, Nawalparasi, and Chitwan.
  • With CCAS distributing misoprostol-related messaging, the product was promoted among the target populations using an integrated strategy. Local FM stations used radio jingles created in local languages to spread information. To raise awareness about the product and its proper usage, briefing sessions and discussions were also arranged amongst NGOs, INGOS, women's groups, local organizations, and government entities. Additionally, on-shop boards at stores selling Matri Surakchya Chakki were used to keep the products visible, and stores were given IEC materials such brochures, poster danglers, and client record books.
• GGMS (Ghar Ghar Maa Swasthya)
  • Through the use of social marketing and social franchising strategies, USAID's GGMS initiative aims to increase the accessibility and availability of health goods and services in Nepal, particularly in remote rural areas that are difficult to access. The social marketing of CRS condoms, oral contraceptives, ORS, and injectables is the focus of the project's operations. Additionally, GGMS assists CRS in its efforts to develop into a more effective and long-lasting organization. Key Strategies:
    • Strategy 1: Increasing demand for FP/RH, MCH and STI/HIV/AIDS prevention commodities and services through an evidence-based and consumer-oriented approach. This approach targets population segments with high risk/need via effective brand marketing and SBCC messages delivered through mass communications, street dramas, and IPC.
    • Strategy 2: Increasing and improving access to products and services in hard-to-reach areas and hot zones, including through innovative, entrepreneurial approaches and partnerships
    • Strategy 3: Creating an efficient base social marketing platform that will provide donors with an attractive and cost-effective option to fund incremental health outcomes.
    • Strategy 4: Strengthening the organizational policies and procedures, and skill sets of CRS to achieve GGMS project objectives.
  • Major Achievement of GGMS are:
    • Condom Infotainment Programs in horizon
    • Student orientation Program HIV/AIDS
  • NTO Retailer Orientation Programs in Hot zones .
  • HIV
  • AIDS orientation to MARPS
  • Visibility, Accessibility and Touch (VAT) Activity
• Public Private Mix-Tuberculosis (PPM TB) Care and Control
  A recent agreement between the Nepal CRS Company and the Save the Children US/Global Fund Tuberculosis Program has been reached. In September 2019, the 15-month project got underway. Six urban areas—Kathmandu, Morang, Banke, and Chitwan—are the center of the project. The project districts: seeks to increase case findings by involving private TB care providers from medical colleges, the private sector (Pharmacies, practitioners, and Private hospitals), and Urban Volunteers contextualized through various interventions, including results-based financing schemes, to encourage early case findings, adequate referral and case diagnosis, early initiation of TB treatment, and reduction in drug resistance, with the goal of reducing catastrophic cost-related outcomes.
  Major activities under this project are:
  • TB case diagnosis from Pharmacies (350 Medical Shops).
  • TB Case Diagnosis from Urban Volunteers (350 Volunteer).
  • Find Cases Actively, separate temporarily and Treat effectively (FAST) & institution Pay for Performance Approach: (25 Hospitals).
  • Pay for Performance for private practitioners (20 Doctors).