I’m angry.

A detestable and reprehensible disease preys on the most vulnerable in society.

Malaria.

Nearly 3.3 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria in 106 countries.

That’s half of humanity.

Don’t believe me? How about some stats from malarianomore.org:

• In the year 2009, Malaria took 780,000 lives.
• 85 percent of malaria deaths globally were children under age 5.
• Every 45 seconds, a child dies from malaria.

As I discussed malaria with friends, the same question kept surfacing in my mind:

Why are we not more upset about this?

We hear about diseases and war ravaging continents, but why are we overlooking the disease brought by a tiny mosquito? Is it because malaria is not trendy enough? Maybe it feels too big and broad.

There is good news, though.

Malaria is a preventable disease! A mosquito net can be the difference between life and death. And we are indeed making progress. Our “Bite Back” campaign is part of that progress.

The theme for World Malaria Day 2011, which is today, is “Achieving Progress and Impact.” It’s a time to celebrate the victories of the past couple of years, but also to stress the great needs in order to reach near-zero deaths by 2015.

It’s OK to get angry. But don’t just get angry. Act.

So today is World Malaria Day. What are you doing about it?

LINK UP: If you’ve written a post (past or present) about the issue of malaria in general, or the work we’re doing in the fight against malaria, please link up with us so we can all benefit. Thanks.

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From a very young age, Anite was a sickly child. Her mother, Florence, says that after Anite was born, she often fell sick from malaria. The little girl went to multiple hospitals, but each time they after they treated her, the malaria came back. This worried Anite’s mother very much. Florence feared she would lose her child.

Even though Florence tried everything within her means to get her daughter as much health care as she could, Anite did not recover completely. Her immunity was very low and she continued to suffer from malaria.

When Florence realized that her daughter’s malaria was persistent, she took Anite to her pastor for a prayer of deliverance. But Anite’s illness would not go away.

Anite was not the only one in her family suffering from this deadly disease. Last year, her father passed away due to malaria associated with HIV.

Anite’s siblings also suffered from malaria. Her sister Josephine caught severe malaria that left her with a spleen condition.

The problem extends beyond Anite’s home; most of the family’s neighbors have also been victims of malaria.

Ten-year-old Anite lives with her mother, two siblings and a cousin. They live in a rented two-room house in one of the slums in Lugazi. The slum does not have a good drainage system, so there is stagnant water in their neighborhood. Because of these conditions, the rate of malaria in Lugazi is very high.

When Anite joined the Child Sponsorship Program six years ago, the child development center staff were committed to reducing the rate at which the children suffered from malaria.

Development center staff member Susan says that many of the causes of malaria in Lugazi are preventable, so they set out to train the children and their families on how to prevent the disease.

“Malaria is the most common disease in this area. Most people suffer from malaria because they are negligent. They do not sleep under treated mosquito nets and they have uncut bushes and stagnant water. There are also myths surrounding treated mosquito nets, so people are reluctant to use them. Some people used to think that these nets have been brought to shorten their lifespan since they have medicine in them. Most people also drink unboiled water, which reduces their immunity.”

Through Compassion’s ministry, all caregivers have received mosquito nets and training on how to prevent malaria. The development center has also given them aqua safe cans and water purifying tablets. Once they drop a tablet in the water, it is safe to consume.

Anite and her family were among the beneficiaries of this intervention. Each of our beneficiaries receives two treated mosquito nets, but in order to protect Anite from the frequent malaria attacks the development center staff needs to ensure that her family receives more nets.

Fortunately, the ministry of health in Uganda distributed mosquito nets to areas most affected by the disease.

The development center staff lobbied for mosquito nets from their district council and were able to secure treated mosquito nets. From this supply they provided Anite’s family with two additional nets.

Despite the intervention, Anite’s health was still poor. She still suffered frequent malaria attacks. She fell sick at least four times in a month, which affected her grades at school. At home, she could not do much. Her mother said that Anite could not even carry a five-liter can of water.

Susan does home visits twice a year for each child. However, because of Anite’s situation, Susan would visit her every week or at least twice a month. When Anite was sick, Susan would stop by her home every evening.

Not only did Anite have poor health, there were also times when her family could not afford to put food on the table. Her mother is a nursery school teacher and sells a few food items at a stall near their home, but the money Florence earns is not enough to support her family.

Seeing the family’s need, the child development center arranged for Florence to receive a monthly amount of money to provide food for her children.

Today, six years after first joining the center, Anite has made tremendous improvements. She has grown into a tall, beautiful girl who is full of joy and she no longer suffers those frequent bouts with malaria.

Today Anite is able to help her mother with household chores. She says she enjoys fetching water, washing clothes and cleaning their house.

This child who at one time could not carry a five-liter can of water now has enough energy to play netball and do many chores.

As Anite’s health improved, so have her grades at school. This is just the beginning for Anite; she hopes to do even better.

Florence is grateful for our ministry, which she says has played a big role in her child’s life. Without help from the Compassion-assisted child development center, she says, she does not know how she would have managed to take care of Anite.

Anite is now a healthy, happy child.

One of the things that makes Anite very happy is receiving letters from her sponsor, Sharon. Recently, Sharon’s children sent Anite a card that they painted. She was delighted. Anite says she prays for her sponsor because she knows that Sharon prays for her.

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This is the home of Amina, a toddler enrolled in the local Child Survival Program (CSP). At the back of the homestead lies waste from the nearby kitchen. On the other side of the home are thick bushes of indigenous trees.

As the CSP specialist visited the mother, mosquito bites could be noted on the face of the child. Throughout the session, the TEEEE! TEEEE! sound of mosquitoes could be heard.

In some countries, mosquitoes are just nuisance, but in Riaciina, mosquitoes pose a deadly threat. Mosquito-borne malaria is the major killer disease in the area.

Riaciina village lies in the semi-arid part of Kenya on the extreme southern slopes of the largest mountain in Kenya, Mount Kirinyaga. The occupants are mainly the Ambeere and the Akaamba people whose primary work is farming and fishing.

On the lower side of the community lies the River Tana, the longest river in Kenya. The areas surrounding the river are dumpy and bushy – a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The infestation of the parasites is especially heavy along the riverbanks during rainy season.

Community members cannot escape the mosquitoes, as this is their only water source. Poor sanitation and disposal of kitchen wastes has also increased the mosquito breeding areas. The area has high maternal and infant mortality rates due to malaria-related complications.

According to a report from a nearby dispensary, an estimated 11 percent of mothers die before childbirth, while about 20 percent of children die before 5 years of age due to severe malaria. Lack of adequate food due to poverty, especially during the dry season, and malnutrition have led to low immunity. A survey by the local health officials shows that there has been an increase in the number of malaria cases and deaths reported in the previous year.

The living standard of the community members is low. Many children rarely attend school and the majority of adults are illiterate. Over 70 percent of the entire adult population is jobless. Those who find casual jobs bring home an average of $1.25 per day. This amount of money cannot provide for a large family’s daily meal.

An average mosquito net, which can greatly reduce cases of malaria, costs $3.25. The caregivers cannot afford to buy mosquito nets for all their children.

AIDS is also on the rise in the community. The pandemic has left many children either homeless or under the care of their aged grandparents. These children are exposed to malaria infection since the poor caregivers either cannot afford or have no knowledge of the importance of using insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNS). Due to their illiteracy, the caregivers have no basic knowledge on malaria preventive measures either.

More than 50 percent of the malaria-associated deaths in the region are the result of less effective antimalarial drugs, poor management and improper diagnosis, and lack of knowledge by the primary caregivers on the importance of early disease interventions.

Some villagers use indigenous plants to create herbal remedies for the treatment of malaria. The herbs and leaves are boiled to form a colored liquor. They have no knowledge on actual dosages; therefore, most of those using the drug are referred to main hospitals with complicated severe malaria. Those who cannot afford transport to main hospitals die as a result.

In 2008, little Amina was admitted to the hospital twice with severe malaria. As a Compassion-assisted child, she was able to receive much-needed treatment and her medical bills were covered by the program. Through malaria education, provision of mosquito nets and removal of the nearby bushes, the child is now healthy and free from malaria.

Tragically, Amina’s sister was not so fortunate.

In 2007, Amina’s elder sister Joyce was 3 years old when she contracted malaria. Joyce had been running a fever and was very weak. Her mother, Agnes, took her to a nearby dispensary. The child was unconscious; her body temperature was high and she had severe febrile convulsions.

According to Agnes, Joyce’s initial treatment was a traditionally prepared herbal remedy that lacked exact doses. Agnes collected herbs and administered them to her daughter without knowing that it would be the last time little Joyce would ever drink the herbal medicine.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s guidelines for the integrated management of childhood illnesses, the child had severe malaria and therefore required urgent referral to a hospital. The family could not afford transport to the far distant hospital. The nearby Kenyan dispensary lacked facilities, so the helpless child died in the hands of her heartbroken mother.

This is one of the many stories in which children die of a disease that could otherwise have been prevented. Despite the tragic loss of her older daughter Joyce, Agnes is grateful that Amina is growing strong and no longer attacked by malaria.

The difference in Amina’s case was the presence of Compassion.

Our CSP staff members work tirelessly, in line with the local health officials, to ensure that the mosquito-breeding places are eradicated. Compassion strives towards this goal so that no other mothers suffer the loss of a child, as Agnes did.

The education by CSP staff on the importance of clearing the nearby bushes, use of treated mosquito nets (ITNS), use of insecticides and early interventions has made progress in reducing malaria in the region. In addition to families enrolled in the Child Survival Program, this information has also been passed to other community members.

During the CSP home-based trainings, the visiting neighbors are never left out. The use of compost pits as advocated by CSP has ensured proper disposal of kitchen waste, minimizing the number of mosquito breeding areas.

The CSP training on malaria is also extended to the pregnant mothers. Malaria is a deadly disease that has severe effects on the growing fetus. Mothers severely hit by the disease have low birth weight babies or even stillbirths as associated with plasmodia in the placenta.

Since malaria has become resistant to most of the common drugs, the government has introduced other strong antimalarial drugs. The drugs are quite efficient in the control of the disease, but are rarely affordable. The use of a sulfur drug (fansidar) during pregnancy has reduced the number of malaria cases among the CSP pregnant mothers.

Our Child Survival Program has changed the lifestyles of many families in Riaciina. A survey by the CSP staff at the end of 2009 showed that:

• More than 90 percent of the community members had compost pits where kitchen wastes are deposited and burned.
• The training on modern methods of farming has led to proper utilization of the available land; most of the bushes where mosquitoes once thrived are now cleared.
• The malaria morbidity and mortality rate among children under 5 years old is now going down progressively.

Malaria has plagued humankind since ancient times and is still a significant threat to half of the world’s population; 3.3 billion people living in 109 countries are at risk of contracting the disease. Estimates suggest that malaria afflicts between 350 and 500 million people every year. In addition, as many as 30,000 visitors to tropical countries are infected annually.

April 25 is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world. This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time. The international malaria community has less than a year to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.

(Excerpt from rollbackmalaria.org)

- Counting Malaria Out: World Malaria Day 2010 Resources

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About 500,000 Kenyan children are missing school due to lack of food.

According to the World Food Program, in countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each day boosts enrollment and promotes regular attendance. Where that is not offered, hunger interferes with the children’s concentration in class, affecting class performance. As famine takes its toll across the country, a growing number of students are staying away from school altogether to help their parents look for food (The Standard, Sept. 23, 2009).

Drought and famine have led to an increase in the high school dropout rate primarily in schools in the Njoro and Nakuru areas. While 29 percent of children in Nairobi are malnourished, that number increases to 42 percent in the Eastern Province (Daily Nation, Oct. 7, 2009).

The United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has stated that malnutrition is the major barrier to universal primary education in Kenya.

Famine conditions have also affected livestock in the rural areas of Kenya, undermining the primary source of income for pastoralists, especially the Maasai population.

Malaria continues to be another source of concern, and an increase in cases is predicted because of the El Niño rains expected to pound the country. Malaria is the leading cause of death in Kenya, affecting mostly the rural poor, particularly young children and pregnant women. Most cases affect children under the age of 5 (Daily Nation, Oct. 7, 2009).

While mosquito nets have made a difference in squelching the malaria epidemic, researchers are discovering that mosquitoes are now feeding earlier in the evening, which reduces the effectiveness of the nets. While there has been a dramatic reduction of malaria in children under 5 years, the disease appears to be shifting to older children (Daily Nation, Oct. 30, 2009).

Other threats to Kenya’s children include the H1N1 virus, child abuse and abduction, and neglect. The number of orphans in Kenya has risen to more than 2.4 million. In 2008, 38,325 children were described as neglected and 2,753 were abandoned by their parents (The Standard, Sept. 29, 2009).

The effects of poverty are felt most severely in the country’s rural areas, where half of the population lives on less that Kshs. 1,560, versus the more urban areas where people earn an average of Kshs. 3,000 per month. Of the 40 million people living in Kenya, 16.6 million survive on one meal a day and are most likely to die of disease, hunger or political violence (The Standard, Oct. 29, 2009).

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Tomorrow morning we’ll publish the answer in the comment section of this post.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Tomorrow morning we’ll publish the answer in the comment section of this post.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Every Thursday there are two groups of children that meet at the development center: registered children and those waiting to be registered. It was such a privilege for Nana to be registered.

After lunch, Tou-Wend-Sida, the team leader, took Nana home. The boy’s left foot was wounded and he could not walk home from the student center. When the team leader and Nana reached home, the boy’s father was sitting in the shadow of one of the two huts that compose the household.

He was resting after working the whole morning to put harvest in a safe place in their loft made of high grass. A smile of complete satisfaction could be seen on his face. The rainy season had been satisfactory, and the harvest was better than in the previous year.

“Hopefully, there is going to be enough food this year after a time of severe food crisis that turned so many lives into hell on earth,” the boy’s father seemed to say to himself, while staring at the loft.

The boy’s mother and sisters were nearby, making brooms out of grass plucked in the field that they will use to sweep the courtyard and the huts.

Some months ago, Nana’s family was going through hard times. Nana was sick from malaria. The family might not have not noticed that the child was sick except for a fortunate accident. Nana was riding a bicycle with his older brother when his left foot got trapped in the rear wheel’s spokes.

The boy’s left foot was wounded, and when they took him to dispensary, nurses noticed that he had high temperature. After screening they found that Nana was suffering from malaria. It was such bad news.

It was harvest time, and Nana’s father was totally short of money and could not pay for any treatment. “The Compassion development center paid for all medical fees, fortunately. Otherwise, I would have needed to borrow some money from a friend of mine to treat my child,” Nana’s father says.

Before the malaria intervention of Compassion provided children of the development center with mosquito nets in September 2008, 55 cases of malaria were reported in the prior six months when the very first child of the student center was registered.

In April 2008, when Nana fell sick from malaria, for many days he could not go to school or go to the student center.

Malaria intervention was not implemented and the child’s parents could not take him to dispensary; they were powerless and did not even find someone in the neighborhood who could lend them some money to take care of Nana.

So they were obliged to treat the child indigenously, giving him concoctions to drink. Praise God, Nana recovered after days of suffering.

When in September 2008 the student center workers informed Nana’s parents and all the registered children’s parents that their children were going to receive mosquito nets, it was such a relief to at last get one of the most reliable prevention methods of malaria.

The mosquito net that Nana received was the very first net of the family and is the only one that they have to this day.

Before the mosquito net distribution, there were many children falling sick from malaria – so much so that the center was spending more money than was allocated to health.

“With mosquito nets and sensitization campaigns that we launched, we now have less and less registered children suffering from malaria,” a development center team leader says.

Kevin, the Health Specialist of Compassion Burkina Faso, considers malaria a tsunami, referring to the fact that malaria is the leading cause of consultation and hospitalization, and most unfortunately of the deaths of thousands of children under 5 in the country.

In a family that is short of money, to be a child and fall sick from severe malaria in Burkina Faso is as desperate as going through the valley of the shadow of death. Thanks to malaria intervention, Nana was treated and recovered from malaria. Now he sleeps under a mosquito net, happy to be out of the reach of mosquitoes.

Among those who got malaria, 11,955 died, a mortality rate of 2.014 percent. Among children from birth to age 5, there were 2,613,514 cases of malaria, and on average, each child in this age group was seen by a doctor or health care deliverer at least once for malaria.

The total number of children registered in child development centers in Burkina Faso who suffered or are still suffering from malaria is 747 for the last quarter of fiscal year 2008 (April – June 2008).

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Malaria, which is transmitted by infected mosquitoes, is killing one million people a year. Most of these are children under age 5 in Africa. That’s right. Malaria, which is preventable and treatable, is killing more than 750,000 children a year in Africa.

Before visiting Uganda, I never really understood how mosquitoes managed to claim so many lives. But when I visited homes there, I understood. Many of the houses don’t have doors — just sheets covering the openings. And the windows are usually bare, too. So at night, the mosquitoes help themselves.

Catherine, a single mother I met in Uganda, told me that before Compassion gave her an insecticide-treated mosquito net, she did everything she could to protect her 10-year-old daughter, Irene. But her efforts were in vain.

“Every night, I tried to cover Irene with a blanket, but she would still get bitten all night long,” said Catherine. “I wanted so badly to buy her a net, but I couldn’t afford it.”

And when Irene got malaria, Catherine certainly couldn’t afford doctors’ bills. “Before Compassion, I would go pleading to doctors for help and beg to pay later,” she said.

Thank God that Compassion intervened! Through the ministry’s Complementary Interventions Program, Irene is now getting medicine and sleeps under a quality net. Today, she’s healthy and thriving.

You can make a difference and help protect vulnerable children like Irene! Since today is World Malaria Day, take a minute to learn more about this disease and see how you can join the fight!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates