When most people think
of Africa, they think of HIV/AIDS. While this is a major problem, there is
another disease that is affecting the lives of my students, teachers and
friends. That is malaria.
Before getting into slightly
depressing, but totally realistic, details about malaria in Africa and more
specifically Ethiopia, here’s a refresher science course in what malaria is and
how it is transmitted. Malaria
starts as a parasite called Plasmodium. While there are five types of these
parasites, P. falciparum and P. vivax are the deadliest.
Infected female Anopheles
mosquitoes transmit malaria into humans. Symptoms common to the flu result
about 7 days after infected; however, it can cause severe pain and complications
rapidly afterwards.
About half of the
world’s population (3.2 billion people) are at risk of this disease. Every year
300-500 million people worldwide are infected with malaria. While 95 countries
around the world reported malaria transmission in 2015. Sub Saharan Africa accounts for 88% of
malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths.
A majority of these happen to kids under the age of 5 resulting in it
being the leading cause of mortality for this age range. Depending which source
is sited, every 30 seconds to every minute a child dies because of malaria.
Malaria first came to
Ethiopia in 1950 and now 50 million people are living in high risk areas. It is
estimated that 9 million cases will arise annually in Ethiopia. A high risk
area is anything at or below 2,200 feet which accounts for about 70% of
Ethiopia and where I am at in Selekleka, Tigray. However, only about 20% of
children that contract malaria have easy access to treatment.
Because
malaria is such a prominent and pertinent struggle in countries where Peace
Corps Volunteers are, April is designated as Malaria Month to encourage
volunteers to educate on this
issue in any and all ways they can think of. Instead of just having malaria be
a topic covered in the biology textbook, education volunteers find ways to
integrate it into their classroom topics. All examples are suddenly related to
malaria so that students are presented with the topic in various ways. My 9th
grade students have written acrostic poems, distinguished between facts and
opinions, constructed opinions and read prompts themed around malaria to tie in
the textbook. Outside of the classroom, I’ve filmed students reading about
malaria to construct into a video, distributed 50 bed nets (773 students and
teachers wanted them), and provided a program at a nearby kindergarten class.
Often
times the facts about malaria can be daunting and disheartening. The daily
pills seem tedious. However, as I looked around my classroom knowing the data,
I realized that the students sitting in my room were the survivors. These
didn’t die before starting school. Somewhere and sometime they were probably
exposed to it at least once, but someone knew to put up a net or walk the hours
needed to get to a medical facility. If I educate even a fraction of these
students to put up bed nets, limit standing water for mosquito eggs to hatch,
use indoor spray, or not to be afraid of a simple malaria test, then their
siblings and future children have much better odds of being survivors too.
It’s
remarkable how one little female bug can cause so much distruction. What is
also remarkable to how preventable it can be stopped if the resources and
knowledge are available.
www. Kidshealth.org/en/parents/malaria/html
National Malaria Awareness Month:
Personal details of the above events:
Week of April 11-15
Projects
with Kindergarteners and Malaria
Kids are universally adorable and fabulous to
teach new things to. Especially kids who love being twirled and think that new
things are worth energy and effort. On Wednesday (13 April) afternoon my friend
Rowanne and I headed to the “O Class” compound with a three-foot mosquito
piñata bringing us even more strange looks. We started out by reviewing body
parts and attempting to sing “Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes” (in English);
however, students aged 3-5 kept wanting to say “birke” instead of knee. I then
brought out the piñata and we identified parts of its body. I tried doing a
“Head, Body, Wings and Legs” song with them, but it ended up being more of a repeat
after me song. Then I had all the kids come to an open area. I was going to be
mosquito. If I touched a student they had to stand still and itch until the
doctor, the oldest student there, came and gave them medicine. It was suppose
to be like freeze tag, but we all just ended up running/buzzing around.
Afterwards, we attempted to hang the piñata over the swing set, but the hanger
broke so I just held it by the tail as kids took a couple bashes at it. We
alternated girl, boy, girl, boy etc till one kid broke the tail off and I could
get to the candy to hand them. It was a great afternoon with about 28 little
kids.
9th Graders and Malaria
While students’ poor behavior prevented any class
from getting the mosquito piñata, we still had a short fun week with malaria.
On Thursday, we reviewed fact and opinion with malaria themed activities.
Students had to read statements and determine if they were fact or opinion.
They then had to write two sentences about their opinion about malaria and what
will malaria be like after 25 years. At break on Thursday and Friday, we took
film of 30 students reading facts about malaria which will be made into a film
for National Malaria Day.
April 18-22
Malaria Net Distributions
I
had no idea how many people needed mosquito nets (“zanzera”) so decided to have
each class report back to me with how many people needed them. Shockingly 773
students and teachers requested nets. After some discussion, we decided that
the best way to distribute the 50 bed nets Peace Corps could provide was to do
a lottery system in which all names were cut and put in a bag where a teacher
would draw them out, one-by-one at the end of the day flag ceremony. On
Wednesday, April 20th, 8 teachers and 17 students received nets. On
Thursday, April 21st, 7 teachers and 13 students received bed nets.
Students and teachers in opposite shift are also wanting to do a lottery for
their students next month, if supplies are available.
Mosquito Piñata with 9B Students
As
a reward for having the best classroom management and attentiveness to malaria
themed events, participating in the reading of malaria facts for the videos,
and doing all of it with a smile, I awarded my ninth graders in section B a
mosquito piñata (“tantu yakob” in Tigrigna) filled with lollipops. With the
help of the vice director we hung the mosquito over one the school’s soccer
goal posts so that the mosquito could “fly” up and down. Students were
blindfolded to represent mosquitoes mostly coming out at night when it is hard
to see them. It was a blast to see them try to break apart the piñata.
Look for a video and blog with all of these
activities in it next week for World Malaria Day.
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