Maureen and Caroline's story

Maureen Owino and her mother, Caroline Owino have had malaria many times, as has everyone else in their family – for them, getting malaria is as normal as getting a cold. They live in a village in Western Kenya, where access to treatment used to be scarce before the implementation of the Malaria No More UK and PATH project that seeks to reduce the overall burden of malaria among the population of Kenyan communities.

Because the Owino family are small scale farmers, when they get sick, they can’t take care of their farm duties and they can’t provide food or money to their family. And when Maureen and her siblings get malaria, they must stay at home from school for days, missing up to a week of their education. Maureen recalls the horrible symptoms of malaria “I get fever and the chills, my eyes weep, and my stomach aches.” But malaria not only has severe consequences on people’s health and lives, it also has a huge impact on the global economy. In fact, for every $1 spent on malaria there’s a saving of $36 due to children missing school and adults missing work.

Caroline, Maureen’s mum, is very grateful for the project that helps her family get quick malaria diagnoses and treatment, but she is still very concerned about their children contracting the disease: “There are mosquitoes even before bedtime. They come during supper, so the children get bitten before they sleep under the mosquito net.”

The project has trained 496 community health volunteers to empower the communities to access quality, effective and prompt malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Malaria No More UK is determined to end this disease. We’re inspiring the global support needed to achieve a malaria free world, where children like Maureen can stay healthy and thrive.