Africa Malaria Day

When I first started writing this blog entry, on Tuesday, it was National Mango Day in Malawi. I wouldn't be writing about it now, except for that as I was listening to the news story, I got a shock.

BBC was interviewing a mango-seller in Malawi who was selling three fresh ripe juicy mangoes......for the equivalent of 14 cents. 14 cents! Even after buying fairly cheap tropical fruit here in Rwanda, I confess I was stunned, and then angry at how unjust that is. I think about how much I pay for a mango back in the States, and while I'm sure there's some economic supply-and-demand theory that could explain why this woman who probably lives in a hut and struggles to put her children through school is only earning less than a nickel for selling a single mango, I confess I don't want to hear it. My prayer is that there are people who are much smarter than me who are working to solve this major problem of inequity. That is about the only way I can get through my day sometimes.

Thanks for listening...and for praying for the mango-sellers! Not to stray further from the topic of this post, which is supposed to be Africa Malaria Day, but writing about economic theory makes me think of my good friend Jennifer C., who (props) just got a tenure-track position at Orange Coast College as an economics professor!! Way to go, Jenn!! Very exciting news. (Maybe you can help me understand the mango-seller dilemma...!!).

Okay. Africa Malaria Day!! Last Friday (a week ago now...time flies) Rwanda celebrated Africa Malaria Day, and for the first time since the conception of Africa Malaria Day (which was a decade and a half ago, here in Africa), Friday was also Global Malaria Day (sponsored by the WHO and UNICEF). The theme of the day was "Malaria: A Disease Without Borders" to underline that malaria is not just an "African" disease, but impacts impoverished populations all over the world.

Here in Rwanda, malaria is still one of the top three killers of children under five, although with diligent effort, education, and behavior change in the population, it may yet lose such an infamous title in the coming five or ten years. In the meantime, Africa Malaria Day was celebrated at a national level out in Kirehe (east Rwanda).



With several friends here from both WR and the child survival program, we attended the festivities. Along the way, we stopped to visit a Care Group, though (one of the community volunteer groups that World Relief helps to sponsor...Care Group volunteers teach their neighbors about good health and hygiene and sometimes distribute simple medicines and other health tools):



Following the visit (which was a lot of fun...Care Group volunteers are always so friendly and fun to hang around), we proceeded to visit the home of a Community Health Worker (CHW). A CHW is an elected community member who is the point-person for simple distribution of pre-packaged medicines for basic and common health care problems in the community. CHWs are part of the government's nation-wide strategy to implement community-based primary health care (and yes, there is a lot of overlap between Care Groups and CHWs, the primary difference being that Care Groups take the initiative to go to their neighbors to present preventive health messages, whereas the community members seek out the CHW if they have a health problem):



Mom asked a good question when I was talking to her about the CHW system: is the CHW a nurse, or a doctor? I explained to her that he/she is neither a nurse or doctor, simply a community member who is trained to fight illness so that more children (and adults) can receive treatment for basic health problems. The CHW was very knowledgeable and hospitable, and this photo shows him explaining how he treats a child who is brought to him, using a government-issued kit and instructions.

Following the CHW visit, we attended an ITN (insecticide-treated net) distribution for malaria prevention, and then ended up in a big field, flanked by hundreds of schoolchildren and local community members, where there were speeches, poems, and dramas about fighting malaria. This photo below is of Ashley Judd (who, as the spokesperson for Population Services International, an NGO, attended the event) is shown greeting some of the schoolchildren after the celebration.




I have a few more photos to post in a following entry....