DID YOU KNOW?
- 3.3
billion people (half the
world’s population) live in areas at risk of malaria transmission in 109 countries and territories
- 35 countries (30 in sub-Saharan Africa and 5
in Asia) account for 98% of global
malaria deaths
- 89% of the malaria deaths worldwide occur in
Africa
- The World Health Organization estimates
that in 2008 malaria caused 190-311
million clinical episodes and 708,000-1,003,000
deaths
- Malaria is the 5th cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide
(after respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal disease, and tuberculosis)
- Malaria is the 2nd leading cause of death from infectious diseases in
Africa, after HIV/AIDS
- There are over 5 million clinical malaria cases in Ethiopia each year
- In Ethiopia, malaria is the leading cause
for outpatient consultations, hospital admissions, and hospital deaths
- There is malaria in 75% of the total country of Ethiopia, with 68% of the population at risk
- Transmission in Ethiopia occurs mostly
from September to December
(Source: Stomp Out Malaria Tool Kit-
Peace Corps Ethiopia)
10 FACTS ABOUT MALARIA:
- Malaria is a life-threatening disease
- Malaria is spread from person to person
by the Anopheles mosquito, which bites at night time
- Anyone can get malaria—boys and girls,
adults, children, and babies
- Malaria is preventable
- Sleeping under an insecticide-treated
mosquito net every night is the best way to protect yourself from malaria
- Symptoms of malaria include: fever,
chills, sweats, headaches, loss of appetite, pain in the joints, diarrhea,
nausea and vomiting, and convulsions
- You can find out if you have malaria with
a 20 minute RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Test)
- Malaria is curable. A medicine called ACT
can be taken to treat and cure malaria
- Seek medical attention at the first sign
of malaria for testing and treatment
- Malaria can be eliminated. Other parts of
the world have already eliminated malaria
(Source: NightWatch Malaria Curriculum)
As you can see above, malaria is a major
problem in many countries around the world, although it doesn’t cross many
people’s minds in America. In all honesty, I didn’t think much about it either
until I came here and realized just how damaging it can be, yet how simple it
is to prevent, detect, and treat.
Every year in April, World Malaria Month
is celebrated, with Peace Corps giving us many resources to help spread
awareness around our communities. In Peace Corps Ethiopia we have a STOMP
committee made up of volunteers who assist in malaria prevention and awareness
activities throughout the year, but then really take charge during April. It
falls upon us volunteers though to do programs, activities, and lessons in our
own communities.
Last year I did one malaria activity in
my classes, but this year I wanted to do more. I conducted 2 activities in my
classes as a game and competition. I have been doing mostly National Exam
revision with my students, as their exam is the end of May. I also just
finished giving them the pilot program of the new PELLE skills assessment from
our Education team that took a week, so I thought this would be a fun break
from the revision of grammar and reading they have become so used to, and I was
right.
The first day I did true and false
malaria facts where my students had to tell me whether the sentence was true or
false by giving me a thumbs up or thumbs down (in my attempt to keep them
quiet… Doesn’t work that well). Then I did matching vocabulary with their
definitions. Both are activities they have done before with me, so we finished
that fairly quickly. I then drew a Jeopardy board on the chalkboard with
categories of General, Transmission, Prevention, Testing, and Treatment in
points of 100-500. I split my students up into 3 groups (with my class sizes
that is about 15-20 kids depending on how many students come to class on a
day). I had each team pick a name and then we began. I would read out a
question and multiple choice answers and they had to give me the correct answer
to get the points. Because the groups are so big and only a few kids understand
and pay attention, it really fell to the front few students to pick the
questions and answer. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how many of my
students who have taken to goofing off were paying attention and trying.
The second day I did a listening activity
with statistics about malaria worldwide and in Ethiopia. Listening activities
can be difficult with such large classes, so I wasn’t sure how it would work. I
hung up statistics (written previously on chart paper) on the board and passed out
numbers and percentages to students who were sitting quietly. I then told each
class I would time them and whichever class could finish the activity quickest
would get lollipops the next day. I would read out a sentence however many
times it took for the student with the number to connect they had that, and
then the challenge of which sentence to put it on (I read them out of order). A
few of my classes had a hard time with this activity, but a few had students
who took it upon themselves to make sure the students with the numbers were
paying attention and getting them to complete the facts as fast as they could.
I try to encourage participation and teamwork as well as leadership as much as
possible, and I think this activity succeeded in that, as well as building
their listening ability, which is one of the 4 core skills I am supposed to be
teaching.
I gave a malaria quiz for my students as
part of their continuous assessment grade. I normally give quizzes that are 10
questions and 2 extra-credit questions, however this was 15 questions- with no
extra credit. I used the final test from the Night Watch curriculum that Peace
Corps gave us, with the questions being very similar to the Jeopardy questions
I used in my class activity previously. Although many of my students cheated,
it was interesting to see which classes got the most points and which ones the
classes got wrong most often. The 2 questions they got wrong often were:
“How many times does a mosquito carrying
the malaria parasite have to bite you before you become infected with the
disease?
A. 50 times B.
10 times C.
At least 3 times D.
Just once”
and
“When should you sleep under a mosquito
net?
A. During rainy season
B. At night, all year round
C. When there are enough mosquitos out
D. Every other night”
Can you answer those correctly?
(FYI, Answer #1 is D and Answer #2 is B)
Conducting clubs here can be difficult,
with there not being much time, students coming from far away, and just the
difference in how learning is approached. Normally Saturday and Sunday mornings
are reserved for tutorials, so if you want to conduct a club, that’s the best
time to do it, because students are already at school. I made an announcement
in my shift at flag ceremony that we would have English/malaria club Sunday
morning after tutorials and that they would have a chance to win a free bed
net. I was not able to make an announcement in the opposite shift because of
power outages and it being Friday. I went to school on Sunday, dropped the
mosquito nets off (Peace Corps gives them to us for us to distribute them) and
went to breakfast. I came back to find the door locked, with no key. There were
also no students that came to my club, because they all left after their
tutorials were done, and they finished earlier than normal.
My malaria distribution was a bit of a
mess at first, but it worked out. I ended up creating a sign up sheet for
students who wanted a bed net, hung it up on the administration building where
students hang out during break, and had a fellow teacher announce it during
flag ceremony in Tigrinya. I kept the sign up sheet up for the day and had 40
students sign up, however I only had 15 to give away. I went home and wrote out
their names on slips of paper. The next day at flag ceremony I announced a few
kids names, but they were not there, or too shy to come up so I decided to just
draw their names and then go and give them out in class. I went around to the
classes to give the kids bed nets who “won the lottery,” but a lot were absent
so I would draw another name. I also gave 3 to the kids who read the public
service announcements. Quite a few of the kids who received them were in my
classes, and only a few were in 9th grade, but that was due to the
proportion of them who signed up.
My biggest undertaking was trying to make
a video with my students. I teach 4 sections of 10th graders. They
love having their pictures taken sometimes, but other times they are super
camera shy. I wanted to record some of them reading malaria facts and take
pictures of them holding statistics, however this proved difficult. I knew they
would be shy if I asked them to record in front of their classes, so I found
random students during their break time (hence, why if you watch the video you
can hear lots of noise in the background). My camera isn’t the best quality and
my students are complete goofballs. I am sure if I had tried and really
rehearsed I could have gotten some much better videos, but I decided I like
what I have because it shows Ethiopian teenagers with their true personalities,
good and bad. I ended up putting together a video with a student reading a
malaria “fact”, a slide of the fact that was read, a picture of a student
holding a malaria statistic, a slide of the sentence that was in the picture,
and then a repeat with the others. I showed them the video when it was done,
and like all videos in class it was challenging with so many of them and my
computer screen and speakers being little, but they really enjoyed listening
to/watching their classmates and themselves.
The last thing I did for malaria month
was “public service announcements” with my students reading a few little
sentences each day about malaria at the flag ceremony. What it is, how to
prevent it, how to test for it, and then how to cure it. I approached some of
my students I knew would be able to read them, but when they learned I wanted
them to read it in front of their shift they got very nervous and many declined
(A shift has about 670 students). Only a few of my students were willing to
read them and it was difficult to find a day at flag ceremony where there were
no other announcements or programs. Wednesday was the day! 3 of my 4 students
read their paragraphs for their shift, and did an amazing job. They read well,
smoothly, clearly, and their tone was just right. I’m so proud of them!
Every volunteer is different in how they
approach these International days and months. There seems to be one for
everything, from gender equality, to lots of health and environment things. I
did a program for International Day of the Girl, but haven’t done much since
then. Many of my fellow volunteers really enjoy running programs and are able
to conduct them with the help of counterparts, their schools, or their
communities. I have had a more difficult time getting things going, but this
was an easy enough subject to incorporate into my own classroom and conduct
programs on my own, without a lot of outside help and motivation.
Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing much
over here, like I’m a bit of a fail, especially when I hear/see what my fellow
volunteers are doing in Ethiopia and around the world. But then I have the
success of one little classroom competition, or having teachers asking me for
bed nets to take home, and something like World Malaria Month takes on more for
me than just educating about malaria and everything that comes with that, it
becomes about community development and involvement, leadership, integration,
and education.
