Malaria Initiative: Mission Possible

In 1972, poet Thomas Lux wrote, “Listen…someone is at the door./Yes…it’s my malaria./Get ready to meet a monster.” More than thirty years after these lines were penned, malaria is still at the door, killing well over one million people per year—many of them women and very young children, most of whom live in tropical, impoverished areas whose conditions hasten the disease’s spread. In these communities, malaria is a very real monster, knocking constantly.

It is with great excitement, then, that Freedom from Hunger announces the approach of the Fourth MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference (November 13-18) and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership’s Forum V (November 18-19). Freedom From Hunger would like to take this opportunity to remind our community that our Malaria Initiative generously supported by a grant from GlaxoSmithKline, is as crucial in this day and age as it has been throughout history.

The Plague in Poverty

An adjunct of Freedom from Hunger’s Credit With Education program, which implements fully-integrated economic management systems in compromised communities throughout Africa, the Malaria Initiative seeks to spread information and awareness—not to mention the ever-important insecticide-treated bednets—to women in the target areas, and spread these tools at a faster rate than the ravages of the devastating disease. These strategies are imperative because, “There is a silent tsunami under way all the time in rural Africa. Every month, as many children die of malaria in Africa as died in the tsunami – about 150,000 children dying every month. And yet malaria is a largely preventable and utterly treatable disease. It’s preventable by something as simple as a mosquito bed net that’s impregnated with insecticide.” Dr. Jeffery Sachs director of the U.N. Millennium Project, Columbia University Economist.

The Malaria Initiative utilizes several key components in its quest to stamp out malaria, the most vital of which is the empowerment of women to gain control over the disease. With women acting as the primary caregivers and community builders in these African villages, so must women provide the first line of defense against infection. Building upon weekly Credit With Education meetings the women already attend in pursuit of economic autonomy, Freedom from Hunger has introduced a malaria education component to the proceedings—imperative in making those most afflicted understand how the disease spreads, how best to prevent infection, and, if already infected, how to administer age- and condition-appropriate treatment.

Practical Solutions

Insecticide-treated bednets are unequivocally recognized as the single most effective preventative measure malaria-ravaged communities can adopt to prevent the spread of the disease. The Malaria Initiative makes a practical matter of this fact, providing not only the information but the bednets themselves, veritable lifelines offered at a drastically reduced cost so as to make what would otherwise be a prohibitive expense—these are women, after all, who struggle to put food on their table—an attainable tool.

The Malaria Initiative, as part of the larger Credit With Education program, will be a fully self-sustainable resource once the three-year pilot term has ended, layered as it is into the already-existing structures established through local area banks and credit unions. The women electing to take part in the multifaceted program will cover the program’s local costs with earnings generated through their loan repayments. No short-term salvo, this landmark initiative with its twin tools of education and practical application will, with a series of brisk clicks, deadbolt the doors of homes across Africa against the monster malaria and the devastation it spreads.

To read more about our Malaria Initiative visit our Web site:
http://www.freefromhunger.org/malaria.html

About Freedom from Hunger

Freedom from Hunger is an international development organization working in sixteen countries across the globe. Our Mission is to bring innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty. Together with local partners, we equip families with resources they need to build futures of health, hope and dignity. Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, non-sectarian organization classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charity.

To learn more about Freedom from hunger visit our Web site: http://www.freefromhunger.org/index.html