World Malaria Day

Malaria is the number one killer in Mozambique. Chicumbane is located close to the Limpopo River, a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes and malaria. Several of my neighbors have had malaria since I have been here. Often when someone complains of having cold or feverish symptoms, it is often assumed it is malaria. Just last week, my friend Dario, a German volunteer working here in Chicumbane complained of a fever, sweats and chills, a headache and a lack of appetite. I did a malaria rapid test with him at his house and it was positive. We went to the hospital, where we did another test and again it was positive. We then were able to go to the pharmacy to pick up Coartem for him. He has been getting better over the past few days. He was lucky in that we were able to test for it and get him the medicine he needed. It doesn’t come as a surprise here when someone says they have malaria. But, the consequences are extremely serious and life-threatening. While many people are aware of the severity of malaria, they are ill-equipped to protect themselves. They know they should sleep under a mosquito net, but lack the money to buy a net. The hospital only gives out nets to pregnant women.

In order to raise awareness, throughout the month of April, I worked with one of the volunteers at CACHES to discuss a different aspect of malaria each week. We covered the following topics: What is Malaria, Prevention, Signs and Symptoms and Treatment. On April 25, World Malaria Day, we did several activities to summarize the lessons for the month. First, three of the other volunteers led a discussion of malaria covering the four topics. Then we played a few games. We played mosquito tag, where there was one mosquito who was trying to “tag” the other kids. Kids were “safe” from the mosquito if they were underneath the mosquito net being held up on two sides of the yard. If one of the kids was tagged by the mosquito, they too became a mosquito and could tag other kids. We then played “Pin the mosquito net on the bed”. Adopting the rules from “Pin the tail on the donkey,” I drew a house with a bed and then distributed pieces of mosquito netting. Each of the kids had to try to place the net over the bed, and whoever was the closest to covering the whole bed, won. And then, we had a mosquito piñata. Before we started, we talked with the kids about how when they see a mosquito, they should hit it. So we would be hitting this mosquito piñata. I learned from the last time we did piñatas at CACHES not to fill it with candy, so I just filled it with paper and then distributed the candy afterwards. It was a much better situation for everyone involved.

While we spent the majority of World Malaria Day talking about the importance of protection from mosquitoes and sleeping under a mosquito net, when we asked the kids how many sleep under a mosquito net, just a handful raised their hands.  The volunteers stressed how the kids should go home and tell their parents they want a mosquito net and will sleep under it. But that also requires having the money to buy a net. Ideally one day, all of them would have a mosquito net to sleep under…and together we will STOMP OUT MALARIA.