The Malaria Micro Project

Goal: The Microproject  aims to improve the health conditions of the target community by prevention and by reducing the prevalence of malaria. The project also intend to improve access to prompt treatment.

This will be achieved by educating target communities, by strengthening  Information, Education, and Communication activities (IECs) at all level, by improving access to preventive measures as well as promote the use of Long Lasting Treated Nets (LLTNs), and by environment management programs.

 Objectives:

Ø      Education of the community  on malaria prevention and treatment(Home based management of fever)

Ø      Promote the use of Treated bed nets in rural areas.

Ø      Promote health insurance in the community as solution to treatment problems

Ø      Promote environmental management programs

Ø      Encourage people to take care of vulnerable people(Children, Pregnant women, the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS,etc.)

 Partly as a result of RVCP’s activities, the incidence of malaria has decreased from 6% to 3% in the target communities, during the period 2000-2006.  In addition, the usage rate of preventative nets has increased from 0.50% to 83% during the same period (see Figure 2 in Appendix I for a graph demonstrating this and other achievements). The participants have gained a profound understanding of causes, symptoms and transmission of malaria. This will lead to their acknowledgement of the importance of preventive measures and prompt treatment. The RVCP emphasizes a hands-on approach by subsidizing ITNs and by enabling the people to conduct environmental changes.      

Section B: Current activities

The Malaria Micro Project bases its work around 3 core activities:

Ø      Interactive teaching sessions for adult communities

Ø      Interactive teaching sessions for youth

Ø      Subsidised mosquito net distribution to vulnerable persons

 Adult Community sessions

RVCP work to provide interactive teaching sessions during which the participants are able to discuss the problems and give their contributions.  This is done during a two-hour session per village, run by RVCP students in the villages and arranged in cooperation with the local leaders. In total, 18 sessions are conducted during the period of June until October : 6 in Nyakagezi,  6 Sessions were held in Nyakagezi, covering all 13 villages during the Umuganda (community work) sessions, whilst in the other sub-sectors there were 4. Around 60 participants attend per session. If needed, more sessions will be organized and special sessions for women and for youth will be conducted in order to ensure the transmission and the comprehension of the information.

Each session covers the following topics: causes of malaria, signs and symptoms of malaria, breeding sites and habitat of the anopheles mosquito, environmental management, use of ITNs in malaria prevention, and the role of health insurance in paying for treatment. During the session, there will be demonstrations of how to use and maintain ITNs.

Leaflets are given out after each session to remind participants of the information covered.

Primary School sessions

RVCP conduct a series of four interactive teaching sessions per class in four primary schools in each of the target four sub-sectors.  These sessions follow four key principles as dictated by UNESCO/FRESH on the subject of malaria education: (1) recognizing/understanding; (2) studying; (3) acting upon this information; and (4) evaluation and consolidation.  Guidelines from UNESCO/FRESH (Focus on Resources for Effective  School Health) have been updated and developed further to suit the nature of the sessions.  The lessons have been designed in an interactive manner to enhance the children’s learning.  To educate the wider community the children are given homework to discuss with their families, in the hope that the family will also develop their awareness and knowledge of the topics taught in the classroom.  The final session in particular is a field-work session to a household equipped with sufficient prevention measures against malaria, with the aim of enhancing knowledge through practical application.

Through these sessions the basic fundamentals about malaria are covered, including the malaria cycle, treatment of the disease as well as methods of prevention.  In addition, a strong emphasis is placed upon a number of key messages, as detailed below:

 Key Messages:

Malaria is transmitted through mosquito bites. Sleeping under a mosquito net treated with a recommended insecticide is the best way to prevent mosquito bites.

 

Wherever malaria is common, children are in danger. A child with a fever should be examined immediately by a trained health worker and receive an appropriate antimalarial treatment as soon as possible.

 

Malaria is very dangerous for pregnant women. Wherever malaria is common, pregnant women should prevent malaria by taking antimalarial tablets recommended by a health worker.

 
A child suffering or recovering from malaria needs plenty of liquids and food.

 

Families and communities can prevent malaria by taking action to stop mosquitoes from breeding.

Finally, RVCP displays a poster in the classroom on completion of teaching sessions, reinforcing the knowledge given, maintaining a high level of awareness about malaria and also providing continuing information about the disease and its treatment.

Subsidised Insecticide-treated Net (ITN) Distribution

RVCP’s focus is to educate and thus promote the implementation of prevention strategies by the villagers themselves, however due to a lack of income amongst a high proportion of the villagers this is largely unfeasible.  Thus, RVCP identifies those in the target community that are deemed the most vulnerable (by the community itself), and distributes these nets at a subsidized rate.