AMF grants funds to NGOs that distribute insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to fight malaria. ITN distribution is a well-established method for saving lives and lowering the burden of malaria (see the “Insecticide-treated nets” section of the malaria chapter in the Disease Control Priorities Project).

But what sets AMF apart from other organizations carrying out similar programs is that they publish all the details for all of their projects….”

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The event was a wonderful success and all attendees learned about the prevention of malaria. A total of one thousand children and pregnant women were provided with long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN’s). In addition, treatment was provided to seventy nine children who were diagnosed with malaria. Everyone who participated enjoyed themselves, as traditional singers and dancers provided entertainment for everyone.The event was historic, as it was attended by community leaders, government officials, and a much higher percentage of men in comparison to the Health Education Days in the past. In Kenyan households, it is the men who make most decisions regarding health and therefore the participation by men in this year’s event was seen as a breakthrough in information dissemination.

Identification of Beneficiaries

Akado Medical Clinic conducted a Rapid Needs Assessment study that covered 3757 households, to identify 1000 households as beneficiaries for 2008. According to Akado’s Study children between three to five years of age, and young girls who are pregnant were at the greatest risk of being infected by Malaria.

Beneficiaries: A total of 1000 nets were distributed to pregnant women and children vulnerable to malaria. This included eight hundred and eighty one children aged less than 5 years who were provided with the nets, along with one hundred nineteen pregnant women. The majority of the children who were provided with the nets were between the ages of two to five years as they are most vulnerable to malaria.

Among the eight hundred and eighty one children who were provided with nets, 63% were girls and 37% were boys. Mothers with girls were given priority in the distribution of nets as girls still face discrimination, neglect, abuse and exploitation from their parents and relatives as compared to boys. Early marriages of girls is very common in the area especially within the local fishing slums. According to Akado’s study, 97% of girls are forced to leave school and end up getting married before they are adults. As a result, the majority of pregnant women who were identified as beneficiaries, were teenagers between the ages of 14-18 years. This group of teenage moms is extremely vulnerable to malaria as they usually don’t visit public health facilities during pregnancy due to fear of public embarrassment and cruelty, or physical assault from their parents and teachers.

Since, Health Education Day has become an annual event; we hope that these efforts will lead to a reduction in the incidence of malaria in the Mbita region.

At present we are raising funds for distribution of long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN’s) for distribution at the Health Education Day 2009. Your generous donation will go a long way in preventing malaria and saving the lives of children, pregnant teen moms and women from malaria in Kenya.

This year’s topic directly correlates with the disease of malaria. In so many ways poverty and malaria go hand and hand with one another. If you take a look at the Malaria Atlas project, http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/MAP_data.html, you can easily see that the impoverished nations are the nations that suffer the greatest from endemic malaria while the nations with great wealth have managed to eradicate malaria completely. Places like the United States eradicated malaria from all U.S. states, particularly the south in Louisiana where it was present in the 1950’s. The same is true of Europe, Australia and regions in Asia.

Disease and poverty have historically always been tightly entwined. Good health care requires the ability to pay both for a nurse or doctor’s services, money to buy drug regimens to relieve symptoms and money to purchase life saving measures to prevent disease such as purchasing long lasting nets for malaria protection. Poverty prevents people from access to all of these health benefits. With the global reach of the Internet our world has become smaller, so it is easier now to view the parts of the world that have tremendous material wealth and at the same time also be very aware of those places in the planet that suffer under tremendous poverty. This amazing disparity on our planet where over three billion people (roughly half the world’s population) live on less than two dollars a day becomes more and more apparent. When people are forced to live with so little expendable income it is easy to understand how difficult even spending $5.00 on an insecticide treated net would be and why it may be impossible for a family under these circumstance to ever be able to afford one.

It may seem like a malaria bed net might not be a solution to poverty but we think it can be a piece of the solution and a piece that may be larger than first appears. Not only do bed nets save children lives, they also ensure a child’s health from a debilitating disease that can last a lifetime it can also ensure a child is healthy enough to attend school. Malaria is not only a disease that kills children it also a disease once contracted, and if survived, means a lifetime of health problems preventing children from regularly attending school, thus ensuring one more generation will have had limited access to education and continuing the cycle of poverty. Poverty is cyclical, but like any cycle it can be broken, and the prevention of malaria can help break this cycle.

From the RNA, it also clearly emerged that there is still a lot of misconceptions and myths associated with malaria. With the majority of those surveyed believing that malaria is spread by eating some kinds of food i.e. sugarcane; unripe mangoes, by walking in the rain or by walking in the sunlight.

Children also tend to receive late treatment after malaria symptoms have onset with one of the primary reasons being the cultural practices that requires a sick woman or child can only go to the hospital after seeking permission from the husband. Other reasons include long distances to travel to the nearest hospital and extreme poverty that reduces these households ability to meet medical costs

The six thousand nets are now in Nairobi and will soon be in Mbita, hopefully by next week. The plan is to distribute the nets in 10 different areas over the course of the month of June 2007. Both photos, video will be taken and posted on the website, along with a one page summary of the distribution.

Magdalene Ouma, the Chief Administrator of the Akado Clinic has stated, “This donation of six thousand malaria bed nets will go into local history book as the largest consignment of insecticide treated nets ever distributed to the poorest and most marginalized households in the Mbita region by either a non-governmental organization or a CBO. We also wanted to draw your kind attention that the nets provided by Kenyan government have failed to reach the poorest pregnant women and desperate children less than 5 years old, since the majority cannot meet the costs and conditions imposed by the government.”