NetsforLife, Vodafone promote ITNs

By Rebecca Kwei AS part of the World Malaria Day celebrations which comes off on April 25, NetsforLife in partnership with Vodafone Ghana, has promoted the use of insecticide treated bednets (ITNs) in Old and New Saasabi and Oyibi near Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region to help fight malaria. ITNs, which has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), give double protection by preventing the mosquito from landing on a person and the insecticide in it repels or kills the mosquito when they land on the net. ITNs have been known to reduce mortality in children under five by about 20 per cent and malaria illnesses among children under five and pregnant women by up to 50 per cent. A survey showed that almost every household in Ghana had an ITN but “sleeping in the ITN” was the problem. NetsforLife is thus championing ‘Hang Up’ which is a paradigm shift in the strategy for deploying ITNs in communities. Under this, volunteers go to the homes of beneficiaries and hang up the ITNs over the sleeping areas of the households. In times past, ITNs were distributed to people to hang themselves but they were not used for the purpose for which they were intended. Thus, at the ceremony to promote ITNs at Saasabi, volunteers from Netsforlife and Vodafone staff hanged about one thousand ITNs in the community and its environs. The Business Development Manager of NetsforLife, Ms Delia Awusi, said the organisation under the Episcopal Relief and Development, had since 2006 distributed 7.2 million ITNs in 17 sub-saharan African countries and 45,000 volunteers had been trained in malaria education. She explained that after a ‘hang up’ project in any community, the organisation went back after a few months to evaluate the success of the project and added that so far, the surveys had shown a decrease in morbidity and mortality in those communities. For her part, the Sustainability Manager of Vodafone, Ms Mamle Asare, said the partnership to promote the use of ITNs formed part of Vodafone’s global task to support the Millennium Development Goals. She said Vodafone Ghana had chosen to support malaria, water and sanitation. The Chief of Saasabi, Nii Saasabi, expressed his appreciation to the two organisations for the project since malaria was a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the community. He appealed to Vodafone to assist the community to construct a KVIP and a clinic.