HEALTH

Malaria No More trains over 30 CSOs on domestic resource mobilization in the fight against malaria.

attendees with their attestations 

Over 30 representatives of Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) drawn from the 10 regions of Cameroon were Thursday, September 20, 2018 told they have an indispensable role to play in the fight against malaria in Cameroon.  The leaders of the CSOs were exhorted in a capacity building workshop organized by Malaria No More, a Non-Governmental Organization in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and Positive Generation at Mérina Hotel in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Malaria it should be noted remains a major public health problem in Cameroon. In fact, it accounted for 24% of consultations, including 32% among those under 05 and 13% of deaths in health facilities, including 27% among children under the age of 5 (PNLP, 2017). The State of Cameroon through the Ministry of Public Health aims at reducing morbidity and mortality rate of malaria by 75% by the end of 2018 (PNLP, 2014-2018).

It is against this backdrop that MNM and her partners decided to organize the workshop in order to inform CSOs of their active role in the fight against malaria and to engage in domestic resource mobilization in their communities. They were told they can sensitize and advocate change in their communities through meeting decision makers and discussing ways of mobilizing resources to end malaria in Cameroon. Also, they have a role to educate members of the communities to get their long lasting-insecticidal treated bed nets, how to wash when they get dirty with laundry soap, spread under sun shed and stitch with needle and thread. They were equally drilled on early diagnosis in case of fever, for pregnant women at four months of pregnancy to get protected and free treatment for children under 05 years of age.

Participants went home visibly satisfied and expressed their readiness to put to use what they acquired in the workshop.  Ngeh Bety Lum is representing KCP Kumba and says, “The workshop was timely because it really empowered me… I had some lapses in running my organization in respect to malaria. In the workshop, I gained some skills that I will like to introduce in my organization like different ways to encourage people use mosquito nets. I was happy being in the workshop because I learnt from the experiences of other CSOs”

With this, one only hopes malaria will soon be a thing of the past if all stakeholders put hands on deck and ensure everyone sleeps under LLIN which is one of the safest ways to prevent malaria.

By Awoh Caleb Ndazua (acn) in Yaoundé

Read, comment and subscribe for updates