Titus, helping a beneficiary to hang a net

I run the Malaria Programme of the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization (ADDRO) in the Upper East Region of Ghana. I have been working with ADDRO for six years, helping to provide nets and education on malaria to vulnerable groups like pregnant women, children under five and the chronically ill.

Malaria remains a major problem in the Upper East Region, it is the most common cause of illness seen in health clinics. It has also affected my family. My one year old daughter, Win-Dilla, had severe malaria in March this year. She had to be admitted to the hospital twice in the same month and on each occasion spent five days in the hospital. It was one of the most frightening moments in my life. We nearly lost her, she had convulsion and a high temperature for a long period of time. On one of my visits to the hospital she all of a sudden became quiet and started stretching herself and shivering, my wife and I rushed to call the nurses for treatment, it was terrifying. Thankfully she recovered and I am grateful to God for saving my daughter.

Whilst organisations like ADDRO have been working in some areas of Upper East Region to help prevent malaria, there has never been a region wide campaign like this one, taking life-saving long lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) to every home in need.

I was excited to be part of this campaign as consistent and proper use of LLINs remains one of the most effective ways of preventing malaria. Since 2010, Ghana has adopted a strategy of distributing and hanging mosquito nets through door-to-door campaigns aiming to reach every home by the end of 2012. Led by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and supported by partners (from the UK and US governments to NGOs like Malaria No More UK), the strategy uses community volunteers who deliver nets along with vital education to help increase net ownership and use and drive malaria away from Ghana. As of March 2012, the campaign had been completed in six of Ghana’s ten regions. I helped to train and support community volunteers in the first of Ghana’s “hang up” net campaigns in the Northern Region and this month I have been supporting the campaign on the ground in the Upper East Region, where over 500,000 nets were distributed.

My involvement with the Upper East Region campaign started in December, with the regional planning and advocacy meetings. These helped coordinate the campaign efforts –there was lots to do including recruiting and training community volunteers, engaging community leaders and making sure all the supplies were in place. Once we had trained the volunteers and they had registered how many nets each home would need, it was time to start the hang up campaign.

During the hang up campaign I was part of the regional monitoring team, giving support to local district health staff and volunteers. I went into the community every day, meeting volunteers and helping support their work – including ensuring they were giving the right number of nets to each home and providing information on their care and use. I also helped a few of the volunteers who had to carry nets on their heads to some homes.

Madam Safia and her baby with their new mosquito net

During the monitoring I met many beneficiaries, including Madam Safia Ibrahim, a 26 year old mother, who was elated to have received a net. She told me “I am very grateful to the donors of these nets… when I was pregnant, I fell ill twice and when I went to the health centre in Binduri, I was told it was malaria and that it is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. The health workers told me that I could have lost my baby due to the malaria but for the fact that I went early to the health centre. I am thankful to God that I had a safe delivery.” Madam Safia explained to me that while she was pregnant she saw the need to sleep under a net after the malaria attack, but unfortunately she didn’t have a net or the money to buy one. “Thank God the hang-up campaign has given me a brand new mosquito net hanged for me in my room, because I do not want my baby and I to fall sick of malaria, I am going to sleep under the net every day, so that my newly born baby and I are protected from malaria.”

Hearing the stories of Madam Safia and the thousands like her that are benefiting from this campaign makes me thankful for the support of the NMCP, Regional Health Directorate and donors, in this case the UK Department for International Development, for providing the nets and support that has made this campaign possible, bringing smiles to the vulnerable. I am also thankful to Malaria No More UK and its supporters for enabling experienced teams like mine to support the work of the dedicated volunteers in this region, as we say “Ayeeko” (which means “Well Done” in Twi).

Find out more about our work in Ghana

Today the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Programme and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) have launched a global plan to tackle emerging mosquito resistance to insecticides. WHO and RBM are urging affected countries and stakeholders to take action now. They want to make sure we can preserve the effectiveness of current mosquito control tools, such as long lasting insecticidal nets and sprays, and to ensure that a new generation of insecticides is available soon.

For more information on the Global Plan visit who.int/malaria

For more background on the importance of insecticides to some of the tools used to fight malaria and the need to invest in ongoing research and development, you can watch our film which features experts discussing the different tools necessary to tackle malaria, including the use of insecticides.

If you want to hear more from the experts, join the All Parliamentary Party Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases session to discuss “The Resistance Challenge” on Tuesday 12 June, at 4pm in Committee Room 9.

Arlene Phillips with her below the line cabbage soup & rice

Over 200 people signed up to Live Below the Line for us in May, so far raising over £23,000, with money still coming in. We have been inspired by the breadth of support from faith leaders, celebrities, politicians, students, business people and dozens of other volunteers from across the country!

We’re delighted to share just some of our highlights here, with more sure to come as people continue to take part and fundraise right up until the end of June. There’s plenty more time for your friends and family to register and get involved in this challenge to end extreme poverty and save lives from malaria.

A host of well known supporters have backed the campaign this year, including many who have been supporting Malaria No More UK. Andy Murray, our long-term supporter and Leadership Council member offered a very special prize for our top fundraiser (competition closes on Friday 18 May). Other famous faces taking up the challenge included singer Aloe Blacc, who we took to Ghana in February, choreographer Arlene Phillips, who spoke out on ITV’s Loose Women about the importance of this campaign and the House of Lord’s Lord Speaker, Baroness D’Souza who witnessed the devastating impact of malaria during her time working in Mozambique.

People of many different faiths have united in their support for this campaign. Our Faiths Act Fellows, Charlotte and Usman previewed the challenge back in February and then hosted our first Live Below the Line budget lunch for representatives from seven different faith traditions in March. See their short film with the best bits fomr the event. We were delighted to see Reverend Rosemarie Mallet from Brixton, Kiran Bali, a leading Hindu interfaith activist and comedian Omid Djalili, of the Bahá’í faith, sign up to to the challenge!

Intrepid student groups have been championing the campaign with young people from Durham Hull, Oxford, Manchester, Edinburgh and Southampton Universities signing up, to name just a few! Read about some of their experiences.

Live Below the Line has also seen participants sharing their experiences widely through social media, blogs and to family and friends; getting people reading, talking and thinking more about the importance of ending global poverty and fighting its causes.

Throughout the week we’ve been enjoying some great blogs, like that from student Laura Campbell who blogged about the Challenge daily and raised a wonderful £300. She sums up her five days saying: “This week has definitely been worth it, I would recommend it to anybody else to try”. Many others shared recipe tips, shopping lists and some of their best and worst experiences from the week. Here are a few that we’ve spotted – let us know if you read any good blogs from the week, or wrote one yourself!

• Sophie Rimmer
• Joyce Nsekela
• Emma Lamb

People have been putting together some great video blogs too including once from Marla Bishop which was all the more powerful as Marla has suffered from malaria herself. Take a look at some of these in our YouTube Channel playlist for the challenge.

We’re also grateful to those supporters who publicised their efforts in the local press with fundraisers including Maggie Throup, from Solihull and Deesiders Andy and Ryan Bond enjoying strong local support.

Finally many of those who took part have spent the week busily tweeting and updating Facebook pages in an effort to boost their fundraising and to generate local and global support. Search for #belowtheline to see just how many people were talking about the Challenge on Twitter, including some well known personalities…

Live Below the Line 2012 is already making a huge difference by generating vital funds and awareness to end malaria deaths and fight extreme poverty. We look forward to keeping those who took part up to date with how the money they are raising will be put to good use in malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment programmes.

If you’ve been inspired by some of those who took part this year, and you’d like to join the Challenge, you still can as fundraising is open until the end of June!

Find our mote:

• Sign up to Live Below the Line
• Sponsor a friend who took part
• Find out other ways you can support the fight to end malaria deaths

Aloe Blacc met a school children in Ghana, every had been affected by malaria (c) Geoff Ward

This week over 10,000 people across the globe are making a change to their daily lives, to help end extreme poverty. They have chosen to Live Below the Line spending £1 on food and drink, to raise funds and awareness of the 1.4 billion people who live below the poverty line everyday for everything.

One of those people is artist and songwriter Aloe Blacc. Aloe was inspired to join the challenge after his trip to Ghana with us earlier this year to learn about malaria and the work taking place right now to make sure every home in the country has a mosquito net by the end of 2012.

Ghana’s entire population of 24 million is at risk from malaria and the disease is a leading cause of death amongst young children. One of the Ghanaians that Aloe spent time with, told him about the impact malaria had on his family very recently.

Aloe recalls: “I met a barber called Thomas, who told me about how he almost lost his one-year old daughter Irene to malaria. He described the panic of finding her convulsing, rushing her to hospital and the four day wait until she eventually opened her eyes again. Irene was one of the lucky ones, she made a full recovery. But the treatment and two-week stay in hospital that saved her life also cost Thomas the equivalent of six month’s wages, something he could ill-afford. Fortunately, he managed to borrow funds to cover the cost of the treatment and has since managed to pay off his debt by taking on extra work. He’s also taken action to help protect his family in future: he has joined Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme and volunteered to help distribute protective mosquito nets along with malaria education to his community.”

The mosquito net distributions that Thomas is part of – and that Malaria No More UK is working with a wide range of partners to support – are essential to protect Ghana’s future generations. During his trip Aloe also visited a primary school where every single child he spoke to had been affected by malaria. Happily, they are among the 40% of Ghana’s population who have already been given access to mosquito nets along with education about how to prevent malaria from spreading.

Whilst visiting the school Aloe and the children sang “I Need a Dollar” together, and for Aloe, it proved to be a moment where the song he wrote back in 2005 took on a poignant new meaning.

“$1 is close to the daily budget of 1.4 billion of the world’s poorest people who survive on this for everything, food, water, transport, education, housing and healthcare. They really can’t afford to catch malaria. When I heard about Live Below the Line, I wanted to take part, even though it falls during a week when I’m due to travel a lot. It will be a challenge, but it’s an engaging way for us all to build on our understanding of the problems that the 1.4 billion who live in extreme poverty face – that way we can play a part in tackling those issues.”

Aloe is Living Below the Line alongside almost 200 others to raise awareness and funds for our work in Africa. You can sponsor Aloe or others taking part to fight malaria at livebelowtheline.com/uk-mnmuk.

Thomas & Irene Sandow (c) Geoff Ward

We are proud to support the historic effort underway in Ghana to make sure every home has a mosquito net by the end of the year. Ghana’s entire population of 24 million people is at risk of malaria so this is a crucial first step to stop the disease from spreading. Malaria is a leading cause of poverty in many parts of Africa, costing the continent around £8 billion a year and individual families up to 25% of their household income.

On a recent trip to Ghana with singer Aloe Blacc we caught up with Thomas, a 28 year old father who shared his story about the toll malaria took on his family last year. Thomas says: “I volunteer with a malaria prevention project in my community, Dromankuma, in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. This was an easy decision as I want to prevent others from going through the pain endured by my two year old daughter Irene when she had severe malaria last year.

The distribution in Dromankuma has increased the number of people with access to nets from 2% to 99% of the entire population – including my family who now use their net every night. I am so pleased that this campaign is now being expanded across Ghana, everyone here is at risk from malaria so everyone should be able to sleep protected by a net.”

Thomas’s story is a powerful example of the devastating impact malaria can have family life and also on their bottom line. We’re working tirelessly to make sure families in Ghana are protected thank to campaigns such as Live Below the Line, raising funds for charities including ourselves to fight poverty and help save lives in Africa. The campaign challenge is to get sponsored to live on £1 a day for all food and drink for five days. It’s running officially this week but can also be done any time in next few weeks, so it is not too late to sign up!

Find out more
Thomas’s Real Life Story
Live Below the Line

This week Malaria No More UK team members Sarah and Roz are Living Below the Line. They’re taking part in the global challenge which asks people to live on £1 a day for 5 days for all food and drink to raise funds and awareness for the 1.4 Billion People who Live Below the Line every day for everything. Here are Sarah and Roz’s reflections mid-way through their week Living Below the Line in supporting of Malaria No More UK.

Five of our team have already done the challenge so we’ve been making the most of their top tips including where to find the cheapest tea bags, bargain vegetables and the daylong benefits of porridge! After some careful sums and shopping this weekend, we are both set to go!

We’ve been cooking up lunches for each other throughout the week so the pressure is on to create a tasty meal at 33p per head and ideally provide some variety to our rations. Roz has already cooked up whole-wheat pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce which was pretty palatable considering she couldn’t use spices or salt and pepper.

Today the rest of the team joined us to Come Dine Below the Line. Like many others across the UK we came together to share a 33p-per-head meal. This was a great opportunity for us to take some time out of a busy working day and get some more menu tips and moral support!

One thing that it’s already exciting to see as the week progresses, is just how much money is being raised for our work by all of those who are taking part. We have both travelled to see firsthand the impact of malaria on the ground in Ghana and in Namibia, so we know just how important the funds being raised through Live Below the Line are, to help build on the recent success that those countries are having in the fight against malaria.

Five days isn’t really that long to live on a little less food and to focus on what really matters. We’re not sure if Roz will run out of milk (looking a distinct possibility!) or Sarah will run out of 101 ways to cook frozen peas before the end of the week but the main thing is that together we are trying just one more way to make malaria no more.

Inspired? You can still sign up for the challenge, and fundraise until the end of June, giving you plenty of time to pick five days that will work for your schedule.

Sign up to Live Below the Line to help make malaria no more
Sponsor Roz, Sarah and others Living Below the Line

Top choreographer Arlene Phillips has been raising funds to save lives from malaria by surviving on just £1 a day for all food and drink this week. The former Strictly Come Dancing judge took up the challenge to preview Live Below the Line with thousands of people across the country set to follow in her £1 a day footsteps next week when the challenge runs from from 7-11 May.

£1 a day is the stark reality for 1.4 billion people around the world who live on this budget, officially below the poverty line, every day for everything. Arlene chose to raise funds to save lives from malaria, a preventable disease that claims over 1,600 lives in Africa every day. She’s already raised £3,400, smashing her target of £3,000 for us. These funds will be used to tackle malaria in Africa, where most deaths from malaria take place and where the disease is an ongoing contributor to the cycle of poverty, preventing children from going to school and workers from earning a living.

Arlene says: “I was shocked to hear malaria still claims the life of a child every minute, yet is is a preventable disease, no one should die from malaria. I think Malaria No More UK’s mission to end deaths once and for all is incredibly inspiring and something we can all get behind. I’ve learnt a lot during the challenge and have a real sense of achievement, although I have to admit, I’m looking forward to an espresso! I hope people across the country will join me and support this important cause by signing up to Live Below The Line next week and help save lives from malaria”.

Helen Mabberley, our Fundraising Manager has also previewed the challenge and hopes Arlene’s efforts will encourage people across the UK to sign up this week. Helen says: “One of the great things about Live Below the Line is that anyone can do it with no training required – just some careful planning. What’s more taking part in the challenge is an unforgettable experience, and an empowering way to make a real difference in the fight against poverty-linked diseases like malaria”.

Other Malaria No More UK celebrity fans getting behind the campaign include singer Aloe Blacc who recently visited Ghana with our team and and tennis ace Andy Murray, who has donated a special tennis package prize to the charity’s top fundraiser for Live Below the Line. It includes a signed tennis racket, t-shirt and tickets to watch Andy in action this summer!

Sponsor Arlene
Sign up to Live Below the Line for Malaria No More UK at www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-mnmuk

Dr Chan watches a patient being tested for malaria using a rapid diagnostic test kit during her hospital visit

25 April was World Malaria Day. We mark this day every year, but I am proud to say this year’s festivities were Namibia’s greatest. Celebrating the dramatic decline of malaria in Namibia and the shift in the country’s policy from controlling to trying to eliminate the disease, Dr Margaret Chan, the Director General of the World Health Organization, made her first visit to Namibia.

Namibia’s Minister of Health, Dr Richard Kamwi, helped encourage this visit, keen to display his country’s progress in the fight against malaria. Dr Chan praised his and Namibia’s efforts and success in this historic effort during her stay.

The special events began on Monday when Dr Chan arrived. Early in the morning she met with the Prime Minister and then followed with a speech to the Namibian Parliament. Not only was this a special parliamentary moment to mark Namibia’s heath improvements and the important link with the WHO, but Margaret Chan became the first women to ever speak to the parliament and state house officials. Her eloquent and strong speech concluded with a standing ovation.

The activities continued on Tuesday evening when WHO used this visit to launch their new malaria surveillance guidelines and their “T3” initiative. The ‘T3’ stands for “Test, treat, and track”. Ensuring every suspected case of malaria is first tested before receiving treatment, combined with vigilant surveillance is exactly the malaria mantra that we have been chanting through our work partnering with Malaria No More UK this year in Namibia, and we were pleased to see the WHO encouraging and pushing these messages with their new initiative. Part of Dr Chan’s entourage included Dr Robert Newman, the Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, who presented T3. During his speech I was excited when he highlighted the need for cross border work, and mentioned our Tans-Kunene Malaria Imitative, the malaria cross border project we launched last year with Angola and Namibia!

A critical issue that Dr Newman brought up was the need for increased domestic investment in malaria, along with donor support, to help Namibia cross the barrier into malaria elimination. It is something we have been stressing with private companies within the country, especially with the global financial crises threatening the gains made over the past 5 years. In fact this year’s global malaria day slogan was: “Sustain gains, save lives, invest in malaria”. With Dr Newman echoing our concerns, we hope that it had some resonance with the stakeholders present.

Malaria is still a leading killer, particularly in Africa, with a child dying every minute. I try to remind people, especially those from the US, that the figure equals a “9/11” worth of children every day. Astonishing. We are lucky that this is not the case in Namibia, but have to be reminded of what can happen if our efforts slip.

Christopher Lourenco with facilitators and training aids for the new health worker training

I was impressed with her presence, engagement with the room, intelligence, and warmth. Not to mention, I was quite pleased she read the malaria briefing given to her prior to the event and was on point with the state of malaria within Namibia and highlighted key issues.

The following day was the main event, where World Malaria Day was commemorated in the malaria prone north of the country, in the second largest city, Oshakati. The northern malaria office is located there, along with the country’s biggest district hospital, where the DG was warmly welcomed.

Addressing the hospital staff and a crowd assembled at Oshakati Stadium, Dr Chan commended Namibia on the progress made in controlling malaria and gave credit to all the right staff, from the health workers to the insecticide spray teams. It was an honour to witness this special moment of recognition for Namibians in the north. “I am proud to be here in Namibia. This is a perfect place to celebrate World Malaria Day and consolidate our optimism about the prospects of freeing this world from an old and tenacious killer.”

The festivities concluded with Dr Chan visiting a health facility where local nurses demonstrated proper use of our malaria rapid diagnostic tests and indoor spraying techniques. Here Dr Chan looks over the RDT procedure, with the new diagnostic posters we just developed, proudly hanging in the background:

Everyone here was thrilled for the chance to showcase Namibia in their fantastic malaria accomplishments. World Malaria Day over, it is now back to work where the team and I are focusing on testing our newly improved training for health workers on how to diagnose and treat malaria and other fevers. Thanks to support from Malaria No More UK and our partnership with the Ministry of Health, we are able to test how much difference this training will make to the lives of health workers and their patients in over 45 health facilities that see 800-1,000 suspected malaria cases each month. We couldn’t be happier to see our work, aligning with the national and global initiatives, highlighted this year on World Malaria Day. We look forward to seeing their results and impact in furthering Namibia’s fight against malaria.

Find out more:

• Clinton Health Access Initiative
• Our work in Namibia
• Help make malaria no more

Next week many of you will be Living Below the Line to help tackle malaria and fight extreme poverty. As part of your week of carefully planned below the line meals, you are invited to Come Dine Below the Line!

Help boost your Live Below the Line fundraising and share the message about the 1.4 Billion People who live in extreme poverty every day for, by inviting your friends to join you for a Below the Line meal on Wednesday 9 May.

Just like the show “Come Dine With Me” you are encouraged to pull together a menu and prepare it for a group of friends who then rate your efforts. The twist is that you can only spend 33p per person on food – giving your friends an insight into your week Living Below the Line…. and an opportunity to sponsor you!

To really help share the importance of your fundraising for our malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment work in Africa, you can accompany your meal with a screening of our new film featuring soul singer Aloe Blacc on his own journey of discovery about malaria and its impact on Ghana, West Africa. Watch Aloe Blacc in Ghana with Malaria No More UK

Interested? There are tips, recipes and even invitations available to download on the Live Below the Line website, and we’d love to hear how your meal goes: please share your pictures on our Facebook page or Tweet about your meal using the hashtags #DineBelowtheLine #belowtheline #endmalaria.

Find out more:

• Not signed up yet? Register to Live Below the Line before it’s too late
• Come Dine Below the Line
• Watch how Faiths Act Fellows Charlotte and Usman brought together different faith leaders to Dine Below the Line
• How we’re making a difference in Africa

Members of the Rotary Club of Pershore have combined African cooking with comedy and music to immense success, by staging a fundraising concert to help fight malaria.

75 Rotarians came together in Eckington Village Hall, Worcestershire to enjoy a night of music from the Fat Chance Comedy Band who entertained attendees, whilst they enjoyed a plate of Kuka Paka – a Kenyan dish of chicken cooked in coconut curry sauce.

Event organiser Cairns Boston, who is also a past president of the Club said: “I was delighted with the support of club members and friends for this hugely entertaining evening and for a wonderful charity. The band really made members laugh and the total raised was excellent.”

The night clearly contained all the magic ingredients for success: great entertainment, good food and a group of dedicated individuals determined to make a difference. The result was that a wonderful £1,100 was raised for our current malaria prevention, treatment and diagnosis work in Namibia.

65% of the population of Namibia are at risk from malaria, and the disease is one of the country’s top five public health concerns, however thanks to the support of organisations and donors like the Rotary Club of Pershore, we’re investing in programmes that are helping the country successfully reduce its malaria burden.

Thank you again to the Pershore Rotarians for pulling off a really successful evening.

Find out more
Our work in Namibia
Get Involved