#STOMPoutMalaria

Over the weekend I had the privilege of having three other PCV’s come to my house for a cross-site-visit to help Dan and I paint a Malaria Mural on one of the walls at my Health Center. A few months back I was given the opportunity to be a part of an umbrella grant written by our Central Malawi’s Regional Malaria Coordinator, and was blessed to receive funding for 2 malaria murals and a project called the “Wall of Fame” that I plan to implement in Chipoka within the next few months.

Malaria is a disease caused by parasites that are transmitted though bites of infected mosquitoes, and kills almost 1 million people per year, the majority of these deaths being African children. In Chipoka specifically, malaria is more than 50% of the cases seen at the health center everyday, and continues to be a huge problem due to the lack of education, resources, and the need of behavior change in my community. Bed nets are supposed to be distributed by the government every 3 years in Malawi, but it has now been 6 years, and the expected net distribution for this year has now been postponed further due to the lack of funds for transportation during distribution. In Chipoka (and Malawi in general) even when nets are distributed freely, many nets are misused anyways, and are not being used to prevent malaria by sleeping under them every single night. People in my village use the nets for catching fish, drying fish, screens for houses, making fences around small trees, covering plants to prevent bugs, and even tying up goats. All of these are problems and changes in behavior that need to be educated on in order for the cases of malaria to decrease in Malawi.

For all of the reasons above this is why we have painted a malaria mural at my health center. The mural shows why it is important to sleep under a net, and what happens if you don’t. Painting a mural and not just writing words is a way for all people (children and illiterate adults) to understand the message that is trying to be portrayed. This mural will be a teaching aid during health talks given in the mornings each day at my health center, but is also seen by anyone just passing by. The hopes for this painting is to bring further awareness about sleeping under a bed net, and continue to decrease the cases of malaria seen in Malawi every year.

****Photo and video credit to Dan DeWitt

#peacecorps