Biting Back Against Malaria on Africa Malaria Day

Every night, after a day bent in half weeding her peanut and pepper patch, Aminata Senesie pumps water, bathes her children, and then puts them to bed. Then she gets in with them.

It's a little crowded, but Aminata doesn't mind. The 20-year-old mother of three can finally sleep peacefully. Jusu, her three-year-old, is on one side. And Sao and Jinnah — her 7-month-old twins — are on the other. And all of them are under an insecticide-treated mosquito net, thanks to CRS. But unfortunately, this is something rare in Kailahun, a humid, crumbling province in Sierra Leone that its residents share with hoards of mosquitoes.

You can't escape them in Sajilla, where Aminata lives. In this mining village near the Liberian border, mosquitoes are everywhere. They come out at night and invite themselves into the beds of couples and kids. And if you listen closely, between clicking insects and the crashing rain, you may hear the fleshy slaps of someone's nocturnal battle with them. Mosquitoes, for many, are just a fact of life.

But for Aminata, it became too much. She couldn't stomach seeing the bites on Jusu. "Jusu was always sick with malaria," she says. "He would get very hot, become pale and refuse food. We would take him to the health post and spend a lot of money on medicine, but he would just get sick again."

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, a poor family like Aminata's living in a place like Kailahun may spend 25 percent or more of its annual income on prevention and treatment. What's worse, fewer than 5 percent of kids in Sierra Leone under five-years-old sleep under treated bed nets. Across the continent, millions don't use them. That's where Catholic Relief Services comes in, along with its donors — including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Sierra Leone and other countries and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Each year, at least 300 million people contract serious cases of malaria worldwide, with more than 1 million people dying — the majority of them being young children in Africa. Africa Malaria Day, observed April 25th this year, highlights the commitment of African governments to roll back this debilitating disease. And from The Gambia to Ethiopia, CRS is helping to do its part.

In The Gambia, CRS is distributing free insecticide-treated bed nets and increasing malaria awareness. CRS' five-year Global Fund program aims to decrease by 30 percent malaria-related sickness and deaths among pregnant women and children under five. That's good news for mothers such as Fatou Dibba, who has received a free bed net. "The net has made a big difference to me and my family," she says. "Not even flies or cockroaches can come inside once the net is down."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, CRS is working with local partners and government agents in 25 underserved rural health zones to reduce the number of children and mothers falling sick and dying from common diseases, including malaria. With funding from USAID and the United Nations, CRS initiatives will impact more than 1 million people over five years.

CRS is also working with district and national health departments and the diocese of Embu in Kenya to prevent deaths of children primarily from malaria, pneumonia and malnutrition. As part of the USAID-funded child survival program, CRS has helped to upgrade health services at the district level in Embu. Health professionals are being trained to better manage cases of childhood malaria. In addition, community volunteers are teaching households to spot the danger signs of malaria, and families are gaining greater access to treated bed nets.

Across Africa, most people accept malaria as a fact of life. CRS aims to change this. A new initiative in Ethiopia helps community members — many of whom can't read — take malaria prevention into their own hands. An innovative manual shows community members how to work together to determine how malaria is spread and, more importantly, take action to stop its spread locally.

It's CRS programs like these that help people like Aminata. But CRS also educates African medical professionals so they can help their own community members.

Take Nemah Ellie. She is a traditional birth attendant who works with expecting mothers in Sierra Leone. Nemah says the lack of information is a major part of the problem.

"People used to believe that malaria came from sucking too many oranges or eating too much palm oil," she says. "Some people even believed that witchcraft caused children to die from malaria."

Now Nemah, trained by CRS, instructs expecting mothers to take at least two doses of oral medication during their pregnancy. This helps clear the parasite from their bodies and helps their unborn children grow. This education works. Just ask Aminata. "My children do not have the rash any longer from mosquito bites," she says.