One mosquito net, one protected family: The fight against malaria continues
👋 Hi everyone, this is Alex writing to you from Rumah Kambera, which is our Medical-Social Base Camp here in East Sumba.
A story of mosquito nets… and nights without nightmares | I’ll tell you something: spending a night here, without a mosquito net, is an experience you never forget, our friends from Rotary International last year remember it, that’s for sure! You know that noise, that little sneaky buzz that slowly approaches your ear… Then, a pause. Silence. And suddenly: a bite!
Imagine that all night long. Because in the ultra-rural villages of Sumba, mosquitoes never sleep. They fly around on patrol, squadrons of Anopheles ready to inject you with malaria while you sleep. I often sleep outside, in these regions among the most infected in the world. And I can tell you that when I have a mosquito net, I sleep. Otherwise, it's hell... And I'm being polite.
That's why we bought and will distribute 300 Reliefnet long-lasting impregnated mosquito nets (LLIN): 200 thanks to Rotary Against Malaria and 100 financed by Fair Future.
Crazy thing about the impact of these 300 mosquito nets. Are you ready? It's unbelievable!
Each impregnated mosquito net protects 5 people each night against the bites of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Its lifespan is 5 years.
➡️ 1 mosquito net = 1,825 nights of protection per year;
➡️ In 5 years, that's 9,125 nights protected by mosquito net;
➡️ With 300 mosquito nets, we reach 2,737,500 nights of protection
With only 300 mosquito nets, that represents millions of nights without risk of infection for children, parents and elderly people living in areas where malaria is endemic.
But here's the problem: Let's say that less than 50% of people here have a mosquito net. And even when they have one, it is often holey, dirty, old, ineffective. Or worse... they don't know how to use it. I have seen mosquito nets used to play volleyball, protect vegetables from insects, or make barriers around small houses so that water buffalo do not come and destroy the small garden! All this because the State does not inform. There is no training, no mass distribution. Here, malaria is inevitable… and for me, for all of us it is simply unacceptable.
With the friends of Kawan Baik and all the volunteers who work with us, we do everything differently. We explain, we train, we show. A mosquito net is a bulwark against malaria, but it must be used properly. We most often associate this with IRS (Indoor Residual Spraying), which consists of treating the interior of houses because a mosquito net alone is not always enough.
But we need even more of course. 300 mosquito nets is good… but thousands are missing. At $20 each, it's the price of a meal at a restaurant (well, when I was in Switzerland you could eat for 20 francs...), but here, it's 100% vital protection. A protected family, pregnant women who go to the end of their pregnancy, and children who finally sleep without waking up sweating and covered in bites.
So there you have it, if you want to change the life of a family for 5 years, you know what to do.
Thank you for following us, thank you for believing with us in a world where we no longer fear the nights.
See you soon. Alex Wettstein
📝 Read the full article on the project here on this link.
📍 See the distribution map of mosquito nets and Indoor Residual Spaying that we are carrying out here on this link.
🦟 Read all the articles related to the Zero Malaria program active since 2022.
⚕️ Discover all our posters and campaigns here. |
