Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, Poverty & SDGs

HEALTH-DR CONGO: Coming Together to Fight Malaria

Isaiah Esipisu

LUBUMBASHI, Apr 26 2010 (IPS) - Eight faith-based organisations have set up a pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the fight against malaria.

The initiative, dubbed the Coalition of Religious Organisations for Health (CORESA, after its French acronym) will receive some money from the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, as well as raise money independently for malaria prevention.

CORESA will see Catholics, Methodists, and Anglicans; Seventh Day Adventists, Apostolics and members of the DRC’s Kimbanguiste Church, as well as the country’s Muslims involved in raising $75 million dollars from around the world to purchase and distribute 2.5 million mosquito-nets.

Studies have shown that if people in malaria-affected communities sleep under insecticide-treated nets, the incidence of the disease can be dramatically reduced.

“That is the reason why we are considering free distribution of at least three nets per family to all families in the DRC as our first priority,” said Dr Assumani N’simbo, a Muslim cleric and vice president of CORESA.

The project is spearheaded by the United Methodist and Anglican Churches of the DRC and the United States. It will reach out to all Congolese, regardless of their religious beliefs.

The United Methodist Church has already established 215 hospitals and clinics around the country. “By forming CORESA, the church is now moving from building structures to providing services,” said Shannon Trilli, the executive director for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Malaria.

“Over 70 percent of people in Africa are religious. It is therefore easier for them to access services provided at their religion level than at the government level.”

Churches and mosques in the U.S. and Asia have agreed to raise money to purchase nets, while their counterparts in the DRC have been given the responsibility of raising awareness communities, educating them on the use of the nets, and distributing them.   So far, 150 volunteers from the various communities of belief have been trained to educate the public on proper use of mosquito-nets through a project known as Nurse for Life, run by the Anglican Church in DRC.

“The United Methodist Church in the DRC has also been appointed as a sub-recipient of money from the Global Fund,” said Trilli.

If the project succeeds, then it will be duplicated in several other African countries, according to CORESA officials.   The DRC’s health minister, Dr Augustine Ilunga,confirmed that the malaria burden in the Congo is very high.

“Due to the high rate of malaria incidence in our country, we welcome any group willing to help us reduce the burden. Intervention from religious groups is all the more welcome because apart from keeping the government accountable, they will be able to reach out to more masses through their religious organisations,” said the minister.

DRC, despite being one of the countries supported by the Global Fund, does not yet provide free malaria treatment for children below the age of five as is the case in other African countries enrolled in the funding programme.

Free treatment of malaria and distribution of mosquito-nets is limited to the rural areas of DRC, where pregnant women and children attending clinics are eligible. People living in urban centres have to pay five dollars for their children to be treated of malaria, according to Ilunga.   However, this does not go down well with the urban poor. “I lost one of my children to malaria because I could not afford treatment,” said Mukumbi Mugalu, a father of 19. “Five dollars is a lot of money to spend on malaria treatment, considering that I earn approximately two dollars per day.”

Mugalu – who says his wife, Baya Bawili, has remarkably given birth to seven sets of twins, one set of triplets, and three more children besides – was grateful to the CORESA initiative for providing his family with six treated nets.

“Malaria has been the biggest challenge in raising up these children,” said Bawili after receiving six treated nets. One of their daughters, Batatu Yawari, had been diagnosed with malaria, but her father was still trying to scrape together the money to buy medication.

CORESA president, Catholic Father Bertin Subi, said the initiative was conceived to prevent exactly such desperate situations.

At its launch ahead of World Malaria Day on Apr. 25, CORESA distributed 30,000 nets donated by the Anglican Church, through an initiative known as Nets for Life.

“Do not sell the nets, and do not use them for fishing,” Yvonne Chakachaka, the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador against Malaria told beneficiaries. Such misuse of the treated nets has been reported in countries like Kenya and Malawi.

The Global Fund Initiative for Malaria Eradication has shown good results with its programme of free treatment for the disease, and free nets to protect against re-infection, have almost eradicated malaria in Eritrea, Rwanda, Uganda and on Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island.    The disease is to the main killer of children under five in endemic countries, including the DRC. Someone dies every 30 seconds of malaria, somewhere in the world.