Mobilized to Fight Malaria

Pierre Faye - Posted on July 6, 2009

In June, a big campaign was launched to distribute long-lasting bed nets, vitamin A and deworming tablets to all children between 6 months and 5 years old. World Vision was an active contributor whose commitment to fight malaria was appreciated.

“I will no longer have sleepless nights lying in my bed with my baby and being beaten by mosquitoes,” says Ndiougue Diouf, 25 years old.

The women woke up at dawn on the day of the distributions to get ahead with the basic house chores, such as fetching water before the team arrived. Some children screamed sharply when they saw the white blouse because they thought that it was an immunization campaign.

Mariama Ngom, 45, a community volunteer opens the mouth of Ndiougue’s baby and puts few drops of vitamin A inside. Right after he gives to the baby a deworming solution and a ticket to his mom so that she can pick-up a free bednet at the heath post.

“At the market I can’t get a bednet without paying $ 10. That’s why I am so thankful,” says Ndiougue Diouf, a woman in her twenties.

Before, the dissemination of bednets had encountered many hindrances. Many poor families were not able to afford bednets in spite of the tremendous efforts undertaken by the partners to subsidize the price. These families, most of them farmers, earn their living relying on farming during the rainy season and their ability to have cash income has been seriously affected by the drought over the past years.

“I can’t wait to hang the bednet I received this morning. With heartfelt thanks, I pray for the generous donors whose support has allowed World Vision to give such a big number of bednets for our children,” says Ndeye Diouf, 29.

Evere More Aware

The consequences of malaria outbreaks over the past years have resulted in a rising awareness among the community of the need to be more involved in the fight against malaria.

“Since the children have started to sleep under bednets, the numbers of patients suffering of malaria has gone trough a vertiginous shift, I even stay now more ten days without seeing any case of malaria, before we received patients suffering from malaria on a daily basis” says Philomene Diompy, a nurse in charge of Ngohe health post.

“All the children were reached. We need now a continuing support of partners like World Vision to extend the use of mosquito nets to the rest of the community,” adds Philomene.

With the preventive measures taken thanks to the support of the Area Development Programs, like destroying larval beds and urging people to make their village clean, the mosquito spreading is being reduced. But, the most efficient barrier to malaria is still the bednet.

Thanks to generous support and the mobilisation of all stakeholders, lasting solutions like bednets are being implemented to block the spreading of malaria and its consequences over the most vulnerable targets, the children and pregnant women.

Good Planning Brings Good Results

The door-to-door campaign started early on July 22, around 8 a.m.. In order to ensure the success of the campaign, two months prior to it’s kick-off, the stakeholders involved met many times under the auspices of Doctor Badiane, head of the Fatick health district to make plans.

Fatick region has a population of 222,381, children between 6-59 months who were the targets of the campaign and there were 38,694 who benefited from the distributions. Many people participated, including 543 volunteers, 36 supervisors and 44 health workers.

The four-day campaign spent three day focused on supplementing children with vitamin A and giving to them deworming tablets. The last day they distributed the bednets.

Vitamin A helps solve growth retardation and blindness while deworming medicine is a barrier to infections and diarrhoea. Bednets protect against malaria and reduce the mortality of pregnant woman and children under five.

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