Happy World Malaria Day!

I'm actually a day late with this post. World Malaria day was yesterday but as I mentioned, here in Guinea we made April Malaria Month.

So what is the big deal with Malaria anyway? It's hardly every mentioned in the US. When's the last time you heard of someone getting Malaria? This is unfortunately not the case in West Africa where Malaria is the biggest health problem facing many countries. The tropical climate as well as a lack of resources and education are the main reasons for this. Guinea is one of the rainiest countries in West Africa, recieving more than a meter of rain per month during the peak of the rainy season. All this rain provides a greed breeding environment for mosquitoes and the prevalence of Malaria rises during the rainy season. The lack of resources to fight malaria is also a problem but this is changing as mosquito net distribution campaigns are currently underway and new malaria drugs are coming down the pipeline. This leaves the problem of general knowledge about the dangers of Malaria.Spreading lifesaving knowledge like how to use a mosquito net, medicines available for pregnant women, and the demographics most affected by malaria is the best way to fight "le paludisme." Education is also where we as volunteers, can have the biggest impact. YOU can help too! Because most people in the US have never even heard of Malaria, telling people about it can raise awareness about the problem that the developing world is facing. Feel free to share any of my stories. The scale of the problem is really crazy. So big in fact, that on average, one child dies every minute from malaria and there were 216 million cases reported around the world in 2010. This is why Peace Corps has developed the Stomp Out Malaria initiative. It's a big deal. Here are some resources if you'd like to learn more:

President's Malaria Initiative: http://www.pmi.gov/
Stomp Out Malaria's facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StompOutMalaria?group_id=0

Seeeeee ya!