Real Life Stories
NamibiaHelvi Kashuku, Field Worker
Helvi is an experienced 34 year old field worker with the Malaria No More UK supported malaria prevention programme in northern Namibia. She is motivated by her own personal experience of malaria, having seen her 12 year old brother suffer from the disease and spend time in hospital, missing out on school and his education.
I believe it is possible to end deaths from malaria in Namibia. Some years ago, many people were dying from malaria, now they have information and education to protect themselves and very few people are losing their lives. I see more people using nets and am happy they are learning to live malaria free
Helvi also recalls when she first received a mosquito net in 1997, but was given no accompanying information or net demonstrations. This meant she did not know how to use the net properly and she ended up not using it at all. Her experiences have inspired her work on malaria prevention, offering others the opportunity to access not only life saving mosquito nets, but also education on how best to use and care for them.
Helvi covers a lot of ground (up to 700 kilometres in a day!) during her work training and supporting Malaria Agents in rural northern Namibia. These community based Malaria Agents undertake direct malaria prevention activities including giving talks about malaria, home to home net distributions, hang up demonstrations and ongoing follow up to check people know how to use and look after their nets to full effect.
Helvi has noticed a clear improvement in the general levels of understanding about malaria and a significant increase in the numbers of people who use mosquito nets.
More real life stories
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James Eley
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Nadeem and Sarah Javaid
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Tesco Global Finance Directors
In early 2010, Tesco Global Finance Directors elected Malaria No More UK as their nominated charity leading to twelve months of fundraising activity across the globe.
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Musa Sanyang
I came from a very poor background from a village in the Gambia. My parents were subsistence farmers, my father planted ground nut during the raining season and my mum, who died about 9 years ago after a complication with malaria, used to work on the rice field during the same period; my family had no other source of income.
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Joanna Awuku Gyan
Community Nurse Joanna works on the frontline fighting malaria in Ghana, where malaria claims more lives of young children than any other single disease.
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Kedibonye Motlalepula
Mum of three Kedibonye often worries about whether her children will catch malaria. Two of them are under five years old and therefore at heightened risk from severe malaria – which can be deadly in young children.
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Bonafactious and Valencia Oroses
Parents Bonafactious and Valencia live with their family in rural Namibia. Their home is in an isolated part of the country meaning they are officially some of the ‘hardest to reach’ communities with little access to malaria prevention and treatment support.
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Bismark Amankwaah, Physician's Assistant
Bismark is on the front line of the malaria fight in his role as a Physician’s Assistant at Ejura hospital. “Around 70% of the 200 patients we see every day are suspected to have malaria. There are only two hospitals in this district and people come far to get here. Sometimes they come too late with severe malaria and it can be fatal.
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Talata Mohammed
Working mum Talata Mohammed lives in central Ghana’s Ashanti region with her family including three adults and four children ages one, two, five and 10. Talata is a farmer and earns her living from crops she grows and sells locally.
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Mallam Nasiru Abdullai, Deputy Imam of Dromankuma Central Mosque
Mallam Abdullai is the Deputy Imam of a mosque in Dromankuma, Ghana, where the whole population is at risk of malaria. Mallam told us about the important role the Mosque has played as a source of information about malaria.
