A community health worker conducts mosquito collections and teaches her community about preventing malaria in northern Nigeria
“I am happy to see that PMI is looking to change towards a community-based approach. It truly helps us in the community take control of our situation… I am excited to share this experience with my colleagues helping bring an end to malaria.”
– Rashida Umar, community health worker, Nigeria
As a community health worker, Rashida Umar provides care and guidance to her neighbors who need health services. As a newly trained community mosquito collector, she is now educating her neighbors about malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, ways to control them, and how her neighbors can protect themselves from malaria.
The mosquito samples collected by trained community members are sent to laboratory scientists for more comprehensive analysis. The national malaria programs can use the data to decide on the most appropriate tools to best protect populations from malaria. By tapping into trusted local residents for this work, PMI and national malaria programs are looking, where appropriate, to shift away from periodic mosquito sampling conducted by visiting experts and investing in collections by trained community members in the places where they live, paving the way for greater acceptance and participation in malaria prevention efforts.
Rashida’s work has helped northern Nigerian communities become more alert to mosquito threats, receptive to malaria control interventions, and eager to stamp out malaria transmission for good. Community collectors are taking greater ownership, proposing improvements, and advocating for resources to make the work sustainable. Rashida’s efforts are also shifting public perceptions that mosquito collection and vector control are confined to specialists in entomology.
The PMI Evolve project is working across 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as Cambodia to strengthen national malaria programs’ capacity to plan, implement, and monitor safe and effective malaria vector control programs. In Nigeria, the project is piloting community mosquito collection in the Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
Photo: Community health workers Rashida Umar (left) and Adama Adamu (right) conducting mosquito collection in Dass Local Government Area (LGA) of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Photo credit: Grace Yina