CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES TO DISTRIBUTE 2.8 MILLION TREATED MOSQUITO NETS IN NIGER
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria donates more than $37 million to the cause
Dakar/Senegal (April 23, 2009) - This Saturday, World Malaria Day, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and its partners will start distributing 2.8 million insecticide treated mosquito nets to children under 5 years old and pregnant women throughout the West African nation of Niger.
The five-year program, one of the largest ever to cover an entire African nation, aims to have 80 percent of children younger than 5 years old and pregnant women sleeping under treated mosquito nets by 2012. Currently, 42 percent of the nation's children younger than 5 years-old sleep under an insecticide treated net.
"The scourge of malaria is something that so many of us have experienced," says Catholic Relief Services President, Ken Hackett, who plans to attend the ceremony in Niger that will kick off the distribution. "The pain and suffering it inflicts on children and the debilitating weakness is immense. That we can be part of a program that will reduce that suffering is a wonderful honor."
On April 25th, World Malaria Day, families can redeem vouchers for insecticide treated mosquito nets at more than 7,000 sites across the country. The mosquito net distribution, which will be carried out in conjunction with the Nigerien government and Caritas Niger, will be followed up with village meetings.
More than 745 community health teachers in 42 district health centers will educate families through films, lectures and publications about the importance of sleeping under bed nets. CRS plans to use everyone from top Nigerien musicians to town criers to reinforce the message.
"It is clearly established that malaria affects the economy of our country," says Dr. Ibrahim Ousmane, CRS' malaria project coordinator. "Every year, billions of francs are swallowed up by the direct and indirect costs associated with the sickness, such as hospitalization, the cost of medicine, and lost working days."
In a study completed last year, CRS found only 36 percent of pregnant women and 44 percent of houses with children younger than 5 years old had an insecticide treated mosquito net. The cost of a bed net - up to $10 in some areas - is cited frequently by women as the reason they don't sleep beneath one. The study also found that malaria was the main cause of death to pregnant women in Dosso and Zinder, two of Niger's largest cities.
"The rainy season is the high transmission period for malaria," says Mr. Ousmane. "That's unfortunate because that is the same time farmers should be growing food for the year and raising livestock. If the number of malaria illnesses went down, the income of Nigeriens would go up."
Today, CRS is fighting malaria in 15 countries across the world, working with partners to reach out to communities and change parents and children's behavior toward the parasite. In Benin, for example, CRS supports more than 1 million children who receive medical treatment and take part in prevention activities. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, CRS has a program that helps more than 140,000 children avoid the disease.
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Catholic Relief Services is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in more than 100 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed. For more information, please visit www.crs.org or www.crsespanol.org.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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