April 25th, 2016: World Malaria Day! Nothing makes me prouder to call myself a Peace Corps Volunteer than seeing the work that fellow PCVs do around the world in order to achieve a malaria-free world one day. To do my part for #worldmalariaday2016, I walked around to surrounding villages and conducted a malaria barrier analysis, or in other words, a survey to understand the different variables which encourage or prevent an individual to sleep under a mosquito net. I visited with men, women, and children as they invited me into their homes and they shared their stories with me. The majority were eager to show me their mosquito nets hung over their beds, could share with me the symptoms of malaria, and even that it comes from the "female anopheles mosquito." Every single person I spoke to has had malaria before, and 87% of them had malaria more than three times in their lives. What interested me the most was hearing why some people chose to not use a net. I expected to hear "no money," and I did from every individual today. What surprised me more were the other factors inhibiting the use of bed nets, such as: nowhere to hang their net, too many children and not enough beds, "it makes me too hot in dry season," and for Muslims, the white color resembles the white shroud used to cover the deceased. One individual told me that, "My ARVs will protect me from malaria," in reference to anti-retrovirals used to treat HIV/AIDS. What I had anticipated would be 20 minutes per household turned into much longer as I corrected some misconceptions, answered questions, and even helped to hang nets or teach families how to repair holes properly. Our Peace Corps Malaria Think Tank has created this barrier analysis for PCVs to use in their specific communities so that we can get a better understanding of how we can make our approach to fighting malaria the most effective here in Uganda and more specifically, in our region. And today as I looked into the eyes of the babies in each woman's arms and the smiles on that dad's face as we fixed the net which hangs over the mattress that his 5 children share, I felt an overwhelming feeling of hope. Hope that one less child will die of malaria. Hope that one more parent will take their child for testing rather than self-treating them. And hope for every man and woman I spoke to today, to go and teach one more person about the myths, symptoms, and treatment of malaria. The empowerment and education that PCVs do today and everyday means one more smiling parent, one more healthy child, and one step closer to eradication. [Also, since my phone died 7 minutes in to my fun this morning, here's a picture of me reading a local material-made big book titled, "Beware Mrs. Mosquito," in a neighboring village. This story (written by a PCV!) teaches kids to sleep under a mosquito net (and repair it if necessary) so they can stay healthy and play. After we read the story, we do a Reader's Theatre so volunteer actors from the audience can act out the story while a Mr. or Mrs. Mosquito buzzes around the room in his/her mask and "nose". I love my job.]
