Project Mosquito Nets

Impact of Project Mosquito Nets

The Power of Love team along with our Zambian families, would like to say a big “thank you” for supporting our malaria prevention program. As a result of your generosity and caring, we are seeing a reduction in the incidence of malaria in our community and with improved health more children are able to attend school regularly. This report describes the results of a study conducted to assess the effectiveness of our malaria prevention program.

Vision and Goals:  Our vision is to eradicate malaria from Zambia and our goal is to eradicate malaria from the community of Matero in Lusaka, Zambia. At our most recent malaria prevention activities in July 2016, we could provide 2000 long lasting insecticide treated nets and education on malaria prevention to families vulnerable to malaria. These nets benefit 8000 children or 4000 adults (as each net can sleep four young children or two adults).

Follow-up Study: A study to assess the effectiveness of this program was conducted in November 2016. Community health workers interviewed 400 beneficiaries regarding the proper use of nets and knowledge about malaria prevention. Goals of this study were to assess:

• if families are sleeping under a net every night,
• if nets are maintained and stored as demonstrated during the malaria prevention day activities,
• if beneficiaries had knowledge about re-treatment of nets, and
• if there was a decline in the incidence of malaria.

Results of the study were as follows:

• Nets are used every night during malaria season. This is important as per the World Health Organization, sleeping under a bed net is one of the most cost effective and easiest ways to prevent malaria.
• Most beneficiaries have better knowledge about proper storage and maintenance of nets. 
• Most beneficiaries have knowledge regarding re-treatment of nets and that this service is available free of cost by the Zambian government agencies.
• Each net was being used to sleep at least 2-3 children or two adults.
• Most women had better knowledge about malaria prevention and symptoms of malaria.
• Most nets were in good condition (not torn).
• There is a reduced incidence of malaria in the community.
• There are fewer missed days from school because of better health of children.

Need for Nets: The need for nets is huge due to water logging and poor drainage in several areas in the community of Matero. Most residents are poor and live on less than $2 per day, so cannot afford to purchase nets. In addition, there is a high incidence of HIV, malaria and TB in the community. Consequently, there is a need for several thousand nets to keep the community malaria free and healthy. 

Plans for 2017: Our goal is to provide at least 4000 long lasting insecticide treated nets and education on malaria prevention to families vulnerable to malaria in 2017.  

To sum, we are confident that as more families sleep under a net and take measures to prevent malaria, the incidence of malaria will continue to decline in our community in Zambia. 

Thanks for your dedication to prevent malaria in Africa.

Links:

• Impact of our malaria prevention program
• Is malaria still a problem? WHO fact sheet
• Results of a study to assess the impact of the provision of nets