Uganda Read This!: Bite Back Uganda

In Uganda, malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, accounting for 25 to 40 percent of outpatient visits to health facilities, 15 to 20 percent of all hospital admissions, and 9 to 14 percent of all hospital deaths. Nearly half of inpatient deaths among children under five years is attributed to malaria. People living in high-risk areas are likely to receive more than 1,500 infectious bites per year. It is Uganda’s tropical climate, temperature, and rainfall that allow for an ideal year-round, mosquito breeding, malaria friendly environment.

Want to know a secret?

Malaria is 100% preventable.

How you ask.

Use a bed net.

Peace Corps Uganda is one of nineteen African countries that make up the President’s Malaria Initiative, PMI. PMI was launched in 2005 as an expansion of the U.S. Government’s resources to help reduce malaria-related deaths in Africa by 50 percent. PMI focuses its attention towards the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and children under five years. Through interventions such as providing insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying, intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women, and immediate use of artemisinin-based combination therapies for those who have been tested positive for malaria, PMI is working towards decreasing the prevalence in Uganda and beyond.

Kendra, a fellow PCV, and I decided to play our part this past weekend in PMI’s goals by helping to educate and sensitize the locals. I headed to her site where we prepped, planned, and prepared for our event on Saturday. After some awesome shirt making we decided on reading a story to the local primary school students titled, Beware of Mrs. Mosquito. The awesome book was written and illustrated by a fellow PCV and produced by a local NGO on rice sacks. After reading the story we answered questions, dispelled the myths of malaria, including that you can get it from the rain and by eating mangoes, and had the children make posters to hang around their school addressing malaria prevention. While the children drew Kendra and I demonstrated to the school staff and parents on proper mosquito net repair. We then had them practice on their own nets.

Often times I question whether the work I am doing here is actually making a difference. It is events like these, where I leave and have children come up and say thank you or parents walk away with repaired nets that I know we are doing something right.