By Alka Subramanian | Executive Director
Happy Mother’s Day! This Mom's Day give a gift of health to a vulnerable child and his/her family in Zambia. Your ongoing support for our malaria prevention program can keep a child malaria free, healthy, and in school.
Recent Malaria Prevention Activities: In April 2017, we could provide 2500 long lasting insecticide treated nets and education on prevention of malaria to children and families vulnerable to malaria. Our goal is to keep children and families healthy and malaria free by eliminating malaria from Zambia. Before the provision of nets, representatives of community-based organizations were provided education on malaria prevention and a demonstration on the proper use and storage of nets. The education component included a discussion on hygiene, drainage maintenance, filling and removal of mosquito breeding sites, a negative impact of malaria in pregnancy, information about malaria prevention for HIV+ children, identification of signs and symptoms of malaria, and information regarding re-treatment of nets.
Impact of Malaria Prevention Activities: Provision of bed nets and education on malaria prevention has gone a long way in reducing the incidence of malaria in our community. Because of the provision of education and families sleeping under nets, beneficiary families have (i) have better knowledge about proper use and storage of nets, (ii) can re-treat nets every six months, (iii) need fewer visits to hospitals/clinics, (iv) have fewer cases of malaria, (v) see an increase in school attendance due to improved health of the children, and (vi) have a higher quality of life and general well-being.
Measuring Impact: A follow-up study will be conducted in July 2017, to assess the impact on the incidence of malaria and on the health of beneficiary families. Study results will be reported in the next report. Results of past studies have underscored the need and huge positive impact of our malaria prevention program.
Next Steps: Most families in our community cannot afford to purchase a net due to a high unemployment rate in the community. In addition, a rise in prices of essential items is causing increased hardship for residents. Children under five years of age are most susceptible to malaria. However, according to UNICEF, less than 25% of children under five sleep under a net in Zambia. Hence there is an ongoing need for nets. Our plan is to provide an additional 1500 malaria bed nets and education on malaria prevention to children and families in 2017.
To sum: Over the last seven years we have been able to provide over 13,300 insecticides treated nets and education on malaria prevention to families vulnerable to malaria in Zambia. Direct beneficiaries are 53,200 young children or 26,600 adults as each net can sleep up to four young children or two adults. Going forward our plan is to increase the coverage area of our malaria prevention program by including more communities.
Thank you for helping keep vulnerable children and families’ malaria free and healthy.
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