Where we work
Malaria No More UK’s single focus is on eliminating deaths from malaria in Africa. To that end, we support work in African countries to ensure that those at risk of malaria can protect themselves from this life-threatening disease.
Botswana
The government of Botswana has set an aggressive target to fully eliminate malaria by 2015, and Malaria No More UK is eager to support them in this pursuit. In the strategic planning for Botswana’s elimination programme, LLIN (long-lasting insecticide-treated net) coverage was identified as a major gap – less than 10% of homes owned mosquito nets they could sleep under at night. Malaria No More wanted to help. We partnered with the Clinton Foundation to develop a free bed net education and distribution programme, and in early 2009 we distributed 32,000 bed nets to 90% of the households within the Okavango health district of Botswana. After the distribution, a new survey showed that ownership of two or more bed nets per household had dramatically improved from 7.9% to 78.1% of households. Bed net usage was also dramatically elevated with the number of women sleeping under bed nets almost eight times higher following the pilot.
On the back of this success, Malaria No More UK has joined Malaria No More US to fund a second phase of this important work in Botswana. The Malaria No More investments will fund an integrated malaria control program involving:
“Hang up and keep up" bed net distribution campaign from January 2010. This will ensure that the nets distributed in early 2009 are still hung up and in use, and will also fund the distribution of additional bed nets to households in Okavango that do not yet own one. The results will help to inform the national scale-up as well as expansion to other countries.
Follow-up evaluation of the pilot project. Planned for March 2010, this evaluation will assess use of bed nets during the peak of this year’s malaria transmission season. This information will then be used to secure increased funding and support from the government of Botswana and its donors as well as to encourage other countries in the region to adopt this approach.
Mobile phone-based reporting pilot. This pilot is based on a successful program employed in Zanzibar using mobile phones to overcome the challenges of widespread un-reported malaria cases in remote health facilities. The pilot aims to significantly improve the accuracy, timeliness and geographic pinpointing of confirmed malaria cases and could see over 80% of cases diagnosed, appropriately treated, and reported.
Ghana
Ghana has a population of nearly 23 million people, and the entire population is at risk of malaria which is hyper-endemic in all parts of Ghana. Transmission occurs year round, and malaria accounts for 38% of all outpatient illnesses, 36% of all hospital admissions, and over a third of all deaths in children under five years.
Malaria No More UK’s work in Ghana began when we met Jo Yirrell, our first Special Ambassador. Jo tragically lost her son, Harry, to malaria and since then has been committed to raising funds and awareness to combat the disease. In April 2009 Jo took a trip to Ghana with Malaria No More UK to retrace Harry’s steps, meet his friends, and see for herself the impact of malaria on the community and the steps that have already been taken to fight the disease. The BBC followed her journey and created a 30 minute documentary, Our World: Malaria, A Mother’s Journey which was aired twice on the BBC. You can read Jo’s blog on her return from Ghana and her reflections on the trip before the documentary was shown.
Malaria No More UK has also been working with Armajaro, one of the world’s leading suppliers of cocoa and coffee, to fight malaria in Africa. In September 2009 Armajaro launched Source Trust, a new ethical trading initiative which guarantees the traceability of cocoa. The aim of Source Trust is to promote sustainable farming practices with traceability that will improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities, in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Source Trust has recently provided 50,000 bed nets to farmers in Ghana to ensure that they and their families – notably vulnerable pregnant women and children – are protected from malaria. This generous investment will protect 100,000 people from malaria for up to five years.
Malaria No More UK is currently investigating opportunities to support the upcoming national bed net distribution in Ghana in spring 2010. We are actively fundraising to support this very important cause – please click here if you’d like to donate to this programme.
RSS