Residents use nets to beat malaria.
A health worker performs a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) for Malaria on a mother and her children. Photo source: Peace Corps
Residents of Lower Sagalla in Taita Taveta County participated in community awareness activities to mark World Malaria Day.
The event was organized by Peace Corps volunteers at Bamako dispensary. Ministry of Health officials organized from the county educated residents on threats of malaria and the necessary steps towards containing them.
Community health workers and dispensary staff took the residents through lessons on symptoms; medication; use, maintenance and repair of bed nets; detecting mosquito larvae, safe use of pesticide and the importance rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs).
With funding from PMI, two community football teams also competed in a Malaria Football Tournament.
Bamako Dispensary receives support from the PMI-Peace Corps Initiative to scale up interventions against Malaria. Taita Taveta County has in the past year realized a 20% decline in malaria related illnesses and deaths owed to successful use of insecticide treated nets, especially among children under 5 and expectant women.
Since 2008, the President’s Malaria Initiative has invested over $173 million or Ksh 14.7 billion in a massive scale-up of malaria prevention and treatment measures across Kenya.