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| © UNICEF/ HQ07-0657/Pirozzi Seventh-month-old Mawi, who has recently recovered from malaria, sits on her mother’s lap under an insecticide-treated bednet in a feeding center on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. UNICEF supports the center’s therapeutic feeding, growth monitoring and immunization programs, and also provides a generator, vehicle, insecticide-treated bednets and essential drugs and supplies. |
In Congo, one of the most malaria prone regions of Africa, only 5 percent of pregnant women and young children sleep beneath insecticide treated bed-nets. UNICEF recently formed strategic partnerships that get supplies like bed-nets to communities in need of these preventative tools.
UNICEF worked with the Congolese railroad and local police to transport bed-nets from Pointe Noire to several regions in Congo using donations from the US Fund for UNICEF and the Government of Japan. The trains passed through treacherous rebel territory to reach affected communities.
Partnerships such as these should not only be praised but should be strengthened through continued efforts from the private sector, donors and governments.
To learn more about recent and current efforts to fight malaria, visit:
UNICEF’s Bed-net Campaign in Congo
http://www.unicefusa.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=duLRI8O0H&b=39284&ct=4265663
Fast Facts on Malaria
http://www.unicef.org/ffl/10/index.html
Malaria: Bedlam in the Blood
By Michael Finkel for National Geographic Magazine
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature1/index.html
Malaria Matters, a blog maintained by Health Expert/Tropical Disease Specialist, Bill Brieger
http://www.malariafreefuture.org/blog/