By Jane Kaye-Bailey | Chairman
World Malaria Day 2017’s global theme is ‘End Malaria for Good’. The World Health Organistion is shining a spotlight on prevention, a critical strategy for reducing the toll of a disease that continues to kill more than 400 000 people annually.
The Butterfly Tree is totally committed to our vital malaria prevention programme in Zambia, where there is high a high prevalence of malaria. In addition to providing mosquito nets and funding malaria prevention workshops, our new intervention, which includes a safe insecticidal coating and larvicide granules, is proving to be highly effective. In November 2015, we coated over 700 dwellings in Mukuni Chiefdom – reports show that there are no new cases of malaria in villages where the application took place.
In the past twelve months, we donated some 800 mosquito nets for Mukuni and Nyawa Chiefdom. These included donations from Marilee fundraiser event, which bought 300 mosquito nets for Mukuni and Singwamba clinics. Last year Singwamba clinic reported a staggering 3,450 cases of malaria. Sadly, there were twelve deaths in children aged between one and thirteen, due to lack of preventative intervention.
Earlier this month Anna, a young school girl, accompanied by her father Jon, walked 47.5 miles from her home to the Welsh Border to raise funds for The Butterfly Tree to buy mosquito nets. This was a remarkable achievement for a young school girl – the money Anna raised from her ‘Walk to Wales’ campaign has bought 142 mosquito nets for the Nyawa Chiefdom. Our main target area for the distribution of mosquito nets are infants, children under 5 years of age and pregnant women.
Your donations have helped us to purchase more of the safe coating and larvicide granules and mosquito nets. After the recent heavy rains, high cases of malaria are predicted over the next three months. We are working closely with the Ministry of Health, the National Malaria Control Centre and local clinics.
There are so many outreach communities that do not receive any support. It is our intention to reach out to areas that desperately need protection. We are very grateful to all our donors and volunteers who are helping us to fight malaria. Most especially the Environmental Officers and community trained health workers – without them the malaria cases would be considerably higher. Below is a message from Zambia:
As the world commemorates World Malaria Day on 25″April 2017 I would like to acknowledge and appreciate the assistance that The Butterfly Tree has given in the fight against Malaria in Mukuni catchment area and beyond. In 2015, the Butterfly Tree donated Vectorcide Coating and Vectorcide Larvicide granules to Mukuni clinic. These products were used in areas with high cases of Malaria within the Mukuni Catchment area. Over 700 structures were coated with the coating while the granules were deposited in the streams in the same areas. A close follow- up of the Malaria disease trend in these areas yielded a reduction in number of Malaria cases. In addition, no deaths due to Malaria were recorded during this period. It is my wish and hope that the Butterfly Tree continues rendering this valuable and effective support in the fight against Malaria. Thank you – Sibeso Maseka, Environmental Officer, Kazungula District.
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