Bite Back North West

Stories about Malaria

Malaria, you are my enemy
By Cyrille, 13 years old
"I’m going to tell you the story of a family who were living in a village where malaria was rife. We commonly call malaria the ‘palu’ in our villages. There was a family who lived in a village. This family threw their washing water, dishwater and empty food cans out close to their house. One day, their child fell ill and the father went to look for a medicinal plant to prepare, to give to the child. The child’s health worsened but the father said that he had no money. The next day the mother was working in the kitchen when she heard this on the radio: “Malaria is an illness which kills. If you have malaria you must go to hospital so they can look after you.” At the same time, she explained to her husband what she had heard on the radio. The husband, afraid that he could lose his son, gave her some money so that she could go the hospital with the child. When she arrived at the hospital, the nurse welcomed them and gave the child an injection. After the injection, he prescribed them some medicines and released them. He advised the wife to sleep under a treated mosquito net to avoid mosquito bites. And ever since she heard the nurse’s advice, the family no longer fall ill from malaria. Malaria kills many people in our district. It is our number one enemy. When I left this family, I asked myself many questions. What would have happened if this mother had not heard this information about malaria on the radio? Many people die because of this illness because they are not aware of its symptoms and its dangers. "

I found this story at:
http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/396779
You can look it up and read others. What stood out to me is this story is the lack of knoweldge
people have about Malaria. One of this things we focus on is teaching parents about this problem and how to deal with it.