Saving Lives – FAWCO’s Malaria Initiative
Focus on Malaria
$137,519.00!! That is the exciting total that FAWCO has collected in the past three years for malaria prevention and the FAWCO initiative called Networks.
How it began
At the 2005 FAWCO Conference in Birmingham, the delegates committed to take on one of the world’s great problems and unanimously agreed to: “take up the global challenge for reducing poverty and improving lives by promoting and supporting the Millennium Development Goals. More specifically, they resolved to address the tragedy of malaria by encouraging FAWCO's members to make a significant commitment to worldwide malaria prevention." Over $100,000 was raised the first year for the purchase of insecticide treated bed nets and the fundraising efforts have successfully continued.
With the enthusiastic support of our members and the FAWCO Foundation, FAWCO's Global Concerns Fund, 2006 to 2007, continued this focus on malaria eradication in support of integrated malaria prevention.
Again, at the FAWCO biennial Conference in Lyon in 2007, the delegates re-affirmed this commitment to malaria eradication by unanimous vote of FAWCO’s Resolutions and Recommendations, resolving to "encourage our members to focus on malaria, the single largest killer of children". With this resolution, fund raising and awareness-raising will continue at least up until the 2009 FAWCO Conference.
Partnerships
From the start, FAWCO has been partnering with the Swiss Foundation BioVision in support of their integrated approach to malaria prevention. The two supported pilot projects in Nyabondo and Malindi Kenya use a combination of various environmentally friendly methods for reducing the number of mosquitoes. These use water management and the elimination and treatment of breeding areas with the natural pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) which has resulted in a reduction in mosquitoes of over 90%. The distribution of insecticide treated bed nets and the education of the local population are an integral part of the projects adding to their success and ensuring secure sustainable malaria control for the future.
The lessons leaned in the two Kenyan projects will now be applied to BioVision’s newest malaria eradication project in the Gurage/Tolay area of Ethiopia where there is a population of about 9,000 people. The area is a high malaria risk zone and the goal of the control project is to improve the human health situation and contribute to the economic growth of the rural poor communities.
Education
At the heart of all BioVision projects is education. The lack of practical information in the fields of agriculture and health is a principle factor restraining progress in Kenya and many other African countries. The Organic Farmer (TOF) is a free newspaper that reaches over 90,000 people every month and has become an important source of information for many African families in rural areas. This year TOF will start to print supplements with special issues on subjects such as healthcare. The first supplement will be on malaria and FAWCO is honored to be able to sponsor this important first edition with 4 pages on malaria prevention. Extra copies will be printed specifically for schools and the contents will be spread further through Kenyan radio stations and other media channels. The soon to be published edition on malaria will soon be available for downloading on this website or at www.biovision.ch.
Thanks
FAWCO, the FAWCO Foundation and all our member organizations can be very proud of their significant contribution to malaria eradication. As of this moment our grand total raised is $137,524. We should also not forget FAWCO's valuable contribution to education and awareness-raising on the issue of malaria eradication and prevention.
The break down of funds donated for malaria prevention (World Swim and BioVision) is as follows:
2006 $82,000.
2007 $42,269.
2008 $12,755. (to date)
This is the first time that all of FAWCO has joined together on a global issue of this kind with organization support of a Millennium Development Goal and we can certainly claim great success. For further information visit the FAWCO website at www.ngo.fawco.org/malaria.