Physical Health Zambia Project #17792

Malaria Prevention Saves Lives

by The Butterfly Tree

Project Report | Aug 10, 2021
FURTHER SUPPORT TO PREVENT MALARIA

By Jane Kaye-Bailey | Founder

Distribution of mosquito nets - Singwamba School

Every two minutes, a child under five dies of malaria. With prevention in place many of these deaths are preventable and treatable. In 2019, there were 229 million malaria cases globally resulting in 409,000 deaths, of which, 67% were children under 5 years of age, equating to almost 750 child deaths per day.

With COVID-19 dominating the media and global health authorities need to control the virus, diseases such as malaria must not be neglected. It is vital that interventions are continued to prevent this deadly disease. Despite all the challenges of the past 18 months The Butterfly Tree has continued its malaria prevention programme in Zambia.

Moomba Chiefdom was targeted before the start of the rainy season where we painted the inside of 650 dwellings with a safe insecticidal coating, which is harmless to humans and animals. We have just ordered a further 2,500 litres of the paint to enable us to reach out to more households in this Chiefdom, which is located in a remote area of the Kazungula District in Southern Province of Zambia.

In addition, mosquito nets were given to school children who often miss out as priority is normally given to younger children and pregnant women. Thanks to an increase in donations for our malaria prevention programme we can expand our ‘mosquito nets’ for schools over the next two months.

Malaria can be eliminated - the World Health Organisation this year awarded China a malaria-free certificate, after the country went from 30 million cases in the 1940's to zero in 2021. Though we cannot help everyone, slowly but surely we are helping to eradicate malaria in Zambia. A mosquito net currently costs less than $5 or £7 and could save a child's life.

Links:

The Butterfly Tree's Malaria Prevention Programme

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Apr 19, 2021
Reaching The Zero Malaria Target

By Jane Kaye-Bailey | Founder

Mosquito Nets - Bunsanga Community School

World Malaria Day takes place every year on April 25th. The theme for 2021 is 'Reaching the Zero Malaria Target'.

According to the World Health Organisation: 'Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of these countries reported zero indigenous malaria cases in 2020, while others made impressive progress in their journey to becoming malaria-free.'

The Butterfly Tree’s aim is to support the WHO’s goals for 2030:

- Reducing malaria case incidence by at least 90%

- Reducing malaria mortality rates by at least 90%

- Eliminating malaria in at least 35 countries

- Preventing a resurgence of malaria in all countries that are malaria-free

The Butterfly Tree, working with the Ministry of Health in Zambia, selects areas where malaria is most prevalent and aims to provide universal coverage in each community. Insecticidal coating, larviciding and mosquito nets provide maximum coverage.

In addition, a Medical Aid Film Company and The Butterfly Tree have teamed together to tackle malaria in Zambia. Combining educational knowledge and practical experience from many years of working at grass root level in Africa, we believe that we can help in the fight against malaria by eradicating it at the source. The Butterfly Tree has handed over the animated Medical Aid film on ‘How to prevent malaria’ to the Kazungula District Health Office. The video is now one of their main resource tools and is being used for training and education purposes in rural health centres and health posts, throughout the District.

This month we are distributing 850 mosquito nets as part of our 'mosquito nets for schools' programme, whereby each pupil and teacher takes possession of their own net, after which monitoring and evaluation will be done. We have also donated safe insecticidal coating and larvicide to Moomba Chiefdom which has seen an increase of malaria cases this year. The most likely reason for the increase is the health authorites delay in distributing internventions as COVID-19 took precendence over other health matters.

Once the inside of dwellings in Moomba have been painted and larvicide placed in areas of stagnant water a significant reduction of malaria cases is expected. As further funding becomes available we can protect more children against malaria in areas where the disease is most prevalent.

A mosquito nets costs just £6 or $9 and could save a child's life.

Links:

The Butterfly Tree's Malaria Prevention Programme

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Dec 23, 2020
MORE SCHOOL CHILDREN PROTECTED FROM MALARIA

By Jane Kaye-Bailey | Founder

Mosquito net distribution - Malimba School

Every two minutes a child dies from malaria. According to UNICEF, malaria there are 2,500 deaths each day, these are mostly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa. Zambia has a high prevalence of malaria.

The Butterfly Tree has provided tens of thousands of mosquito nets in rural areas throughout the Kazungula District. In 2017 a project, pioneered by the charity called ‘mosquito nets for schools’, was launched after learning that school children were contracting malaria due to lack of protection. Priority is usually given to pregnant women and children under the age of five.

To date the charity has donated mosquito nets to 13 schools in the Kazungula District, the most recent being Moomba in a reemote area, some km from our base near Livingstone, Siamasimbi, Ndele and Chuunga Schools.

In 2015, The Butterfly Tree initiated a safe innovation to protect people from malaria, which is highly effective in reducing the number of cases. A safe insecticidal coating is painted on the inside of dwellings, when a mosquito lands on a wall, it will pierce the surface, ingest the chemical and will fly off die. In addition, larvicide granules are dispersed in ponds and streams to prevent larva from developing into mosquitos. Both interventions are safe to humans, animals and fish. This has proved to be highly effective in reducing cases of malaria in areas of distribution in Mukuni, Nyawa and Moomba Chiefdoms.

The rainy season has started in Zambia and this is the time when malaria is most prevalent. The festive season we are appealing for donations to buy more mosquito nets for school children. I would like to thank everyone who has made a donation and wish all our supporters a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.

A mosquito costs just £6 or $9 and could save a child's life.

Links:

2 Stories of Hope - malaria prevention

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