One way to appreciate the
impact of our malaria activities in Guinea is by the numbers. We are religious
about collecting data on the work we do so that we can constantly evaluate and
improve our work. The Malaria Coordinators (ten volunteers who have been
selected to lead malaria efforts in their work zones) are still collecting the
vast majority of the data from the volunteers in their zones, so it will be a
couple weeks before we have the final numbers. However, I’d like to briefly
touch upon a few impressive activities that were done in Guinea to give you a
taste!
On April 27th,
Peace Corps Education Volunteer Dante Bugli
hosted 19 other volunteers at his site in Wonkifong for a full day of malaria
events. Volunteers first gave educational talks at the local school, including
a short skit, to four classes of middle school students, reaching a total of
181 students. Afterward, in the school courtyard all students participated in a
malaria-themed fair at which they learned how to wash and repair mosquito nets,
took photos of themselves with anti-malaria slogans written on their hands, and
contributed to a banner by writing “J’aime ma moustiquaire” (I love my mosquito
net). Earlier in the week, Dante had worked with three other volunteers to
train a group of 30 college students as peer educators. On Saturday, these students
split up into six groups and went door-to-door in the community with Peace
Corps Volunteers (PCVs), giving educational talks and helping to hang mosquito
nets. In a few short hours, the groups visited over 60 households, reaching a
total of 278 women (23 of which were pregnant, an important number since pregnant
women are much more susceptible to malaria then 
In early April, Peace Corps
Public Health Volunteer Megan Townsend conducted a two-day training of trainers
on malaria prevention with her local CECOJE, or youth group. Upon completion,
the new peer educators began home visits in the community to give educational
talks on malaria. The peer educators used a “boîte à images,” or visual aid
produced by Peace Corps partner Faisons Ensemble with funding from the
President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). Over the course of 5 days, the peer
educators visited 45 households, spreading life-saving malaria information to
258 Guineans. Megan worked with the local health facility to develop a referral
form that the peer educators used during their home visits to refer community
members with fever to the health center for diagnosis/treatment. They capped
off their activities by setting up a stall at the weekly market, where they
reached at least 200 people with malaria information. 
On April 20th,
Peace Corps Education Volunteer Elizabeth Chadwick invited 12 other volunteers
from all sectors to her site for an all-day malaria extravaganza which included
school visits, educational talks and culminated in a soccer match. The
volunteers started the day at Liz’s middle school in the village of Kolaboui
where she teaches Physics and biology. She and the other volunteers visited 12
classrooms to talk to 735 students about malaria and performing a malaria skit.
Later, working with 16 student translators, the PCVs split up into groups to
give educational talks in 81 households, sensitizing 72 men and 262 women. In
the process, they helped to hang up 25 previously unhung mosquito nets. The
extravaganza culminated in a soccer match of PCVs vs. students, which the PCVs
won narrowly 2-1 in penalty shots. At halftime, the audience of 500 community
members watched a malaria skit performed by Guineans and listened to a guest
speaker from the health center talk about the importance of malaria
Community Econcomic
Development Volunteer Chelsea Erola led a 100 kilometer bike
tour with two other Peace Corps Volunteers in the first week of April. Starting from Chelsea’s site of Koba, they
visted 10 villages over the course of 4 days. Chelsea worked with the director
of her local health center to contact health posts in the surrounding area to
set up the bike tour. At each of the villages the volunteers visited, they
worked with a translator from the local health post to give a malaria
sensitization, using a home-made banner as a visual aid. Their talks included
demonstrations of how to hang mosquito nets, as well as how to wash nets when
they become dirty. Over the four days of the bike tour the volunteers educated
over 800 Guineans on malaria prevention. 
Education Volunteer Tess
Palmer has challenged herself to hang 300 nets in her community over the
course of 30 days, starting in mid-April. The inspiration for this activity
came from her first home visits when she realized that many community members
had mosquito nets but had not hung them over their sleeping spaces. Tess
decided to encourage people to take pride in using their nets by photographing
them next to their hung nets. Her project has been so successful that she is
running out of nets to hang – so many people in Banko want their photo taken
with their nets that they are hanging them up themselves and calling her over
to take a picture. So far Tess has hung 46 nets, taken 139 photos and has 21
days remaining.
These short summaries are far
from capturing the full impact of these events on the communities they touched.
In Guinea, malaria is the single leading cost of consultations in public health
facilities, hospitalizations, and death. According to WHO estimates, each year
approximately 14,000 Guineans die from a malaria infection or complications
from the disease. This makes the decision of whether or not to sleep under a
mosquito net a life-saving one, and Peace Corps Volunteers here are doing
tremendous work to explain to Guineans that this is the best way that they can
protect their families.
Guinea is one of 23 Peace Corps posts that is part of the Stomping Out Malaria in Africa initiative. Follow our work on Facebook by giving a "Like" to our page (https://www.facebook.com/StompOutMalaria), by following our initiative Twitter account (https://twitter.com/StompOutMalaria) and by following our Guinea Twitter account (https://twitter.com/StompM_Guinea).
Stay tuned for even more
updates … this is only a peek at the inspiring activities done this month!
Keep Stomping.