Real Life Stories

NamibiaHelvi Kashuku

Helvi is an experienced Field Worker with the malaria prevention programme we supported 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.

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