Malaria …. Be Gone!!

Well, in May 2012, this would be the sentiment behind the malaria training and mosquito net distribution in my village.  The fight against malaria …. it is the number 1 cause of death in Niger!!  With the children and the elderly being the most vulnerable population to this statistic!

Though I was leaving shortly after I completed the training, I knew in my heart, that this could not last until my return – giving that our goings and comings rotate around the rainy season (height of malaria infection) …. I knew that would mean that I could not teach on the topic again until May of 2014.  And I was unwilling to allow another 2 rainy seasons to pass in which the villagers would be susceptible to dying of malaria.  I desired to say “malaria … be gone from this village!”

Lofty goal … the mosquito is a persistent little entity here … but no less sincere of a goal in my heart!

The malaria training consisted of four parts:

1. causes of malaria …. that it comes from mosquitos and not from eating new grain or germs on the wind!

2. signs/symptoms of malaria

3. treatment of malaria – how to treat at home and when to take people to the hospital (especially children under 5 … they need to go right away!)

3. prevention of malaria

• reducing standing water around their huts, cutting down tall grass where the mosquitos live
• sleeping under mosquito nets

 

Following the training – we did a mosquito net distribution in the village, sufficient nets for everyone to be able to sleep under in protection!

Mosquito Nets: Road of Escape

Fast Forward to 2013:

After my return to the field in June 2013, I was anxious to visit the villagers and follow-up on the training and mosquito nets.  As the villagers are busy in their fields throughout the rainy season, I drove around to each of the village sites – driving hut to hut to visit with the villagers.  This gave me the chance to also see where everyone lives and map out the village area and its resources.

As I interviewed the families in each area – it was immediately evident which areas were next to the marsh or standing water (in the city) ….. for the incidences of malaria were greatly increased the closer to the water (and the higher population of mosquitos). 

I wish it could have been achieved 100% … but, the last village I visited, it was reported that one child died of malaria last year.  In all, I need to remember that 1 death in a population of 1,400 is a huge step forward for this country!

And even at that – it was greatly encouraging to see that the nets were still tied above the beds.  The villagers talked of all they had applied from the lessons as well:

• reducing standing water in their hut compounds
• using damp cloths to reduce their fevers
• taking their children to the clinics (which is an astronomical change in behaviour – the children rarely being taken, or only when it is too late and they die on the road in)
• cutting the grass down around their huts
• washing and care of nets

Most of the villagers were able to report knowing that their children or they as adults received the mosquito bites in the evening before they entered under their nets.  The Fulani eat their supper meal around 8pm, after the sun has set, and then they go to bed.  So until that time, they are vulnerable.

Even those families where people were sick with malaria, and this family where the child died, spoke of their gratefulness for the nets and cited the nets as being useful to their lives!

Here are some of my favourite quotes:

• “we are anxious to go to bed now, so we can enter the nets”
• “the year before, my daughter went to the clinic 5x with malaria – last year, not once!”
• “I didn’t know about the nets before.  My children always cried from the bites.  But now, praise God, this is no more.”
• “Sleeping with the nets has become a habit now; without them, we cannot sleep!”
• “every night, before we had the nets, I was bothered by mosquitos … now I sleep in peace!”
• “even the guests in my home slept under a net I provided for them”
• “everything you taught, I wrote down and I told people everywhere I went how to get rid of mosquitos and standing water in their yards”
• “we have no problems – we have been saved from mosquitos”
• “we were always having to go to the clinic, but now that is finished. when we have health, all is good!”

And my favourite, yet odd quote: “every time we went to bed under the nets, we remembered you in your absence”.  Not quite sure what to do with that one, but sweet nonetheless!

Thank you to all who prayed for the malaria training and the receptivity of the villagers to this new knowledge!!  I have been blown away by the degree to which each and everyone of them embraced this teaching!

Thank you to all who have contributed to the mosquito nets through our Justice and Compassion Catalogue … it is because of your contributions that I was able to purchase these mosquito nets which went to the village and have made such an impact on their health and wellness!!