News
Where your money is spent?
18th February 2010Comic Relief funds partners in Africa who are doing amazing work on the ground to tackle malaria. Here are some of them....
Net for Life
Nets for Life work with communities in two regions of Ghana in West Africa. Many people don’t have a net in Ghana, or don’t know how to use them properly. Often, they are not aware of what the symptoms of malaria are. This project uses volunteer ‘malaria agents’ who go to households and make sure everyone has a net – and knows how to use it. They are listened to because they know the local people and the culture well. These volunteers identify which houses need nets, then deliver and hang the nets over sleeping spaces, provide follow-up education, and monitor their use. They also teach local people how to recognise symptoms of malaria and stress the importance of seeking help and treatment immediately.
The money you raised will be used to distribute 1.2million long lasting insecticide nets to 3 million people in Ghana. That’s over 600,000 households!
Malaria Consortium
Your cash is helping to buy and deliver long lasting insecticide nets to communities living in the poorest and most remote communities on the Ugandan-Congolese border. These nets will protect over 1.1 million people from the disease! Community health workers will also distribute effective malaria drugs to children with fever, and provide life saving drugs to severely ill children. For many children, this is the difference between life and death as it buys them extra time to get to the health facility for treatment.
Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Malaria is one of the leading causes of illness and death in Zambia. Annually there are about 4.3 million cases of malaria and 50,000 deaths recorded. It sadly affects children the most.
The technologies to prevent and treat malaria are very expensive and as a result they are not available to everyone in Zambia. But with your money, we’ve been able to help buy and distribute 3.1 million insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria, as well as educating communities so there is an understanding on how nets should be used. We also train health workers so they can correctly diagnose malaria. This increases the number of people who have access to effective and prompt treatment.
MENTOR Initiative
Climate change has had a major effect in Kenya. They have experienced lots of both drought and rain which has caused a lot of flooding. These weather conditions are perfect for malaria epidemics which happen after there has been heavy rainfall on very dry land, the perfect conditions for mosquitoes to breed.
The money you have raised will be spent in north east Kenya where people are particularly vulnerable to sudden flooding. Mentor are developing systems so that they can spot conditions early enough to warn the local people that a malaria epidemic is on its way. That way, health workers and the local community can prevent and respond to malaria epidemics and protect the community as best they can.