ATLANTA – Lisa arrived at Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe almost a month before her delivery date. She lives more than 37 miles from the hospital, the closest to her home. She came to stay at the Waiting Mothers’ Shelter to be sure she could give birth in a medical facility. The shelter was just refurbished last year with the help of some outside supporters. The labor and delivery units were expanded and new equipment installed using grants from Global Ministries.

In many medical facilities across Africa, patients’ families are expected to provide all or some food during their stay. Fortunately, Old Mutare established a large garden last year to grow nutritious food for patients. “The vegetables we now eat are grown in this garden. I do not have to ask my relatives to bring me vegetables from back home,” said Lisa.

The garden was possible because the water system had also been reconstructed, with new storage tanks. The Zimbabwe Episcopal Area Health Board has been working on improvements to Old Mutare Mission Hospital over time, as well as to two other United Methodist hospitals, Mutambara and Nyadire, several smaller clinics.

Every year, the Global Health unit of Global Ministries awards grants to health boards and other United Methodist partners to support improvements in health care and administration. In addition, some episcopal areas receive grants for Mother, Newborn and Child Health; prevention and treatment of communicable and noncommunicable diseases; and for major infrastructure and facility improvements increase health care for everyone using the services.

Global Health partners with health teams from 14 sub-Saharan countries, encompassing nine United Methodist episcopal areas. The UMC supports hundreds of health facilities – hospitals in some cases and many small, remote clinics. Currently, about 190 health facilities are working on grant projects.

Working through partners that oversee the work of United Methodist health facilities in Africa, Global Ministries has helped to improve health services in many African countries. Health partners track the progress in their facilities, gathering information on their patients and services, the kinds of health problems they encounter, length of treatment, medical supplies and medicines. With reliable data, Global Health reports reaching, on average, more than a million beneficiaries each year. Last year, 48 grants were awarded among the health boards with 24 additional grants to other partners for a total of $5,291,657.

Reconstructing maternity and delivery wards and building new mothers’ shelters improve the conditions in which babies are born. But it takes much more to keep a baby thriving once he or she leaves the hospital.

United Methodist health teams have created community outreach programs that spread health information on the importance of prenatal care, giving birth in medical facilities, returning to the doctor for check-ups, vaccinations, and how to prevent malaria and other diseases and provide food with better nutritional value.

Some health facilities have staff that visit communities and set up clinics for health checks. Others train volunteers to give out important health information in their communities.

When major grants are released for reconstruction or building new facilities, water infrastructure is often included in the building plans. Clean water goes a long way in preventing disease. Most facilities open new wells and other clean water sources to the surrounding community.

Transportation is another factor for remote health clinics and hospitals to consider. Few rural residents have cars, and some communities lack roads altogether. Stocking facilities with supplies and medications is a constant challenge in some remote areas, especially in rainy seasons. Reliable vehicles are sometimes part of the plan in a health administration budget so conference staff can get to the facilities to assess operations.

The first UMC health boards were developed by UMCOR when Imagine No Malaria collected significant funding for malaria awareness, net distribution and treatment. The campaign needed organized and efficient ways to distribute supplies, information and medicines, that included follow-up by UMC health facilities. The creation of health boards worked so well to coordinate responses that the Global Health unit was developed to extend the work and further explore ways to improve health outcomes.

Today, United Methodist health boards and other partners have expanded their mission as professional health administrators. Even with the uncertainty of government aid, especially from the U.S., the mission of church-related health facilities, which draw support from larger religious and nonprofit networks, continues. They often serve in remote places among the people who need them the most. Family members the world over love and cherish their children, and in God’s eyes, every baby is a gift and a promise for abundant life.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

Global Health
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on preventing, testing and treating those affected by preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

Support the work of global health.

The post World Health Day – focusing on the smallest of all appeared first on Global Ministries.

ATLANTA – Every year on April 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsors World Malaria Day to commemorate the ways that people around the world continue to battle this deadly but preventable and treatable disease. Unfortunately, the message about causes and remedies has not yet reached all the vulnerable communities that are most susceptible to it.

In some areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women remain hesitant about seeking prenatal and obstetric care. They try, instead, to follow their family and tribal traditions, which have served their communities for hundreds of years. But some diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, require stronger antidotes than traditional practices can offer.

Mamu was one who tried to stay with traditional treatments. But then, three years ago, she was pregnant with twin girls, and when she did not feel well, she went to traditional healers for a remedy to bring down the fever, which was caused by malaria. But her babies were born prematurely; neither survived. So last year, when she became pregnant again, her husband convinced her to ask for obstetric services at the Nganza United Methodist Health Center. This time she attended regular prenatal appointments and followed the advice of the doctor and nursing staff.

“I have just given birth to my second son here without difficulty,” Mamu affirmed, as the staff asked her how she was doing. “We are in good health, I don’t have a fever, and my child too, is doing very well. I gave birth in very good conditions at the Nganza Health Center. I invite all pregnant women in the area to come and follow the prenatal care program.”

Part of prenatal care at the Nganza center – and for most United Methodist facilities partnering with Global Ministries – is a routine course of malaria prophylactics, much like what travelers take to avoid contracting it. Women also receive a long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net upon arrival at the center, and the combination generally keeps them free of malaria throughout pregnancy. This greatly improves the likelihood of delivering a healthy baby.

But it is best if families do not have to experience terrible personal losses for women to seek health care from professional centers. So, every year on World Malaria Day, and many more days during the year, volunteers recruited and trained in United Methodist health centers take their message to the streets.

Most UMC health ministries have developed systems that include church and community volunteers, youth teams and sometimes municipal groups like schools or civic societies to learn about malaria prevention and treatment. The groups then canvas a community with information about best practices concerning health. In the case of malaria, women like Mamu and their families are encouraged to come to the health facilities as soon as they think they are pregnant to begin prenatal care. At other times, these groups may organize community clean-up days, sharing information about recognizing and eliminating environmental conditions that encourage mosquitos to breed and multiply.

UMC health boards in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria all train dedicated volunteers who disseminate needed information among their own communities. In Nigeria, groups of young people first approach village leaders, whether they are traditional tribal leaders, Christians or Muslims, it doesn’t matter. Once they have discussed the plan and received approval, they enter a community with local support and encouragement.

Another way in which malaria programming is integrated into UMC health operations in Africa is through a robust practice of strengthening all the health systems that help communities to thrive. In addition to medicines, testing kits and other malaria supplies, activities such as improving or rebuilding facilities, furnishing new units, ensuring a healthy and accessible water supply and a well-trained staff are all things Global Ministries considers and supports with partner health boards.

For some years research has progressed for a vaccine solution to the parasite that causes malaria. Just recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved two malaria vaccines as safe and effective. On World Malaria Day, health officials in Liberia and Sierra Leone will launch malaria vaccine campaigns and make the RTS,S vaccine available. UMC health facilities will stock vaccines and advocate to make them part of the routine cycle of vaccinations for every child.

By June 2024, the DRC and Burundi should have vaccines available and Mozambique and Nigeria will follow. These vaccines, if accepted and administered, should greatly reduce malaria and the effects of severe malaria, including death, in populations repeatedly affected by it. Global Ministries will work with conference and episcopal area health boards to support vaccination programs, working with local governments and communities to encourage vaccination of children ages 5 and under.

Efforts to reduce and even eliminate malaria continue through Global Ministries’ health work with African health boards and beyond. Since the INM campaign was launched in 2008, the program has reached thousands of people with malaria prevention and control strategies. The grassroots efforts to eliminate malaria in local communities goes on, absorbed by other Global Health programming and coordinated by health professionals in their own communities. With introduction of the vaccines, a new era in malaria prevention is dawning.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

Global Health
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

The post Reducing malaria community by community appeared first on Global Ministries.

ATLANTA – When one-year-old Mamie came to the United Methodist health clinic near her home in Sierra Leone, she was very sick. Quickly diagnosed with malaria through a rapid test, she was treated with antimalarial medication and recovered after several days.

But Mamie’s parents worried about how they would pay for her care. So, when Mamie’s father learned that his daughter’s stay and treatment at the clinic were free, he lept for joy and thanked God and the clinic healthcare workers for healing his child.

According to the World Health Organization, 96% of worldwide deaths from malaria occur in Africa, and 80% of those cases occur in children. But since 2008, Global Ministries’ Imagine No Malaria campaign has joined the global fight against malaria to save the lives of children like Mamie.

In the East African country of Burundi, malaria rates doubled in 2019. But since then, Global Ministries has ensured that anyone who visits a United Methodist health facility can receive a mosquito net to reduce their chances of infection. Pastors and students at 20 local schools have been trained to spread malaria awareness, educating classmates and parishioners about malaria symptoms and encouraging them to visit a health clinic at the first sign of disease, since early intervention is critical.

In Angola, community participation in malaria prevention and education is also strong. Youth workers go door-to-door to meet with families and demonstrate how to hang mosquito nets. As in Burundi, they encourage their neighbors to recognize the signs of malaria and visit local clinics. And community members trust that they will be able to receive treatment at those facilities.

“Most of the people surrounding Quéssua [health clinic] come from very poor homes,” explains David, a health volunteer at a clinic in Angola. “They cannot afford to pay for these services in [the] city, but at Quéssua, they get all services for free.”

Today, in nine different countries across sub-Sahara and East Africa including Sierra Leone, Burundi and Angola, United Methodist health facilities partner with local leaders and institutions to prioritize ending this often lethal – but preventable and treatable – tropical disease. By enabling mosquito net distribution, education campaigns, rapid testing, the training of health care workers and research that assesses the results of this work, thousands of people are protected against malaria.

Global Health
Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

Support the work of global health.

The post Imagining – and working toward – no malaria in Africa appeared first on Global Ministries.

At just 11 years old, Mwamba, living in the village of Nganza in Tshikaji, Central Congo, already carried a great burden. His parents died in a train accident, and he lived with extended family and sometimes on his own. He was often so sick he couldn’t attend school or work to earn a little more income.

Like many children in Africa, he was being repeatedly infected with the malaria parasite through mosquito bites, but he didn’t know that. The health facility nearest to his home treated him with a blood transfusion, which made him feel better for a while, but the sickness always came back. Then he was directed by other community members to try the Nganza United Methodist Health Center, where he could get medication.

“I received free treatment at the Nganza Methodist Health Center,” Mwamba said to an evaluator at the center. “It’s been more than three months since I’ve had severe malaria. I follow the lessons on malaria prevention from the center and I use the mosquito net every night.”

Mwamba has been able to attend school again and resume his daily activities. He is now serious about avoiding malaria altogether, because now he knows how to do it.

Mwamba was just one of more than 40,000 people treated for malaria in 2022 by United Methodist health facilities and smaller clinics of three annual conferences in Central Congo. In addition to giving health and prevention information to patients, the Central Congo UMC Health Board also invested in information campaigns that reached many small communities.

Identifying malaria symptoms and when to seek treatment at a clinic is a primary message sent out through as many community networks and channels as possible. This effort has saved countless lives.

Roland Fernandes, general secretary for Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), noted that the theme chosen by the World Health Organization for World Malaria Day this year, “Zero malaria,” stresses the importance of reaching marginalized populations with the tools and strategies available to reduce and eliminate malaria.

“United Methodists have worked for decades with UMCOR and Global Health to reach these populations through United Methodist health clinics across the continent,” he said. “Today, we support the African UMC health boards as they provide medicines, health education and successful awareness-raising campaigns with community leaders, and prevention strategies such as net distributions and environmental cleanup to reach more people every year. This basic and fundamental community work through faith communities, health facilities, local governments and schools is the means to finally end the suffering caused by this treatable and preventable disease.”

Today, with support and encouragement from Global Ministries, UMC health boards have learned to seek partners beyond United Methodist networks to take advantage of opportunities offered by their government health programs, other nongovernmental organizations, local community efforts and other faith groups. Partnership increases their ability to deliver better health services and share critical prevention and treatment information.

In 2022, the Nigeria UMC Health Board and the United Methodist Church in Nigeria Rural Health Program participated in a mass insecticide-treated net distribution and education campaign in 10 states that included partners such as Catholic Relief Services, local and state government organizations, and major funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and USAID. A total of 41.5 million nets were distributed through this campaign.

The UMC Nigeria Rural Health Program was responsible for campaign activities in the 11 wards of the Karim Lamido community, conducting orientation meetings with community leaders, religious leaders, students, teachers and union leaders. The team mobilized to encourage community members to register for the campaign and net distribution, meeting with various community leaders to help them actively support the campaign. The UMC program also provided orientation to schools. The campaign included radio and television media.

An Imagine No Malaria grant from Global Health supported the UMC Health Board in Nigeria to supply medicines for treatment, diagnostic needs and bed nets as well as educational materials to UMC rural clinics.

In certain rural areas of Nigeria, malaria symptoms are confused with other illnesses or attributed to curses that must be removed from family members. This affects young children adversely, as valuable treatment time slips away. Often mothers arrive with children who are already experiencing severe malaria symptoms, unable to eat, with very high fevers and dehydration. If left untreated, malaria would take the children’s lives.

But the information campaigns have reached people, and some are arriving at the clinics for treatment. A child age 9 was brought to Gwandum clinic by his mother, unconscious, in the severe stages of the disease. He was tested and diagnosed at this UMC maternity center and received medication. “I didn’t believe my child could come back to life like this,” his mother said. Injections revived her son after a few days, and she carefully followed up with home treatment of oral medication she received. She said this was much more effective than the medication she had bought at market.

Since 2021, the UMC Health Board of Burundi has partnered with 20 different local schools to develop a successful model of antimalaria clubs, particularly in the areas where the two UMC medical centers operate, Kayero and Murore. Groups of clergy and other church leaders were also trained, as well as staff of both hospitals, but as Dr. Aloys Nyabenda, the Burundi Annual Conference Health Board coordinator noted, “children are a source of change in a household.”

The work extended beyond Methodist schools to public schools, which partnered by providing classroom space, organization and a teacher-coach for each club, as well as participation by all the principals of the schools involved. In addition to learning about disease, the clubs helped children and youth understand how to clean up the environment around houses and in their communities to decrease favorable insect breeding sites.

“Putting this knowledge into practice requires repetition over and over again, and that is what we are doing,” confirmed Nyabenda. “By ‘Zero malaria,’ we mean the commitment to mobilize and empower communities to take ownership of the fight against malaria. We mean also the availability of all the means needed to treat and prevent against malaria.”

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

Global Health

Methodism’s focus on health as a part of mission dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries when missionaries expanded the options for health care in underserved communities. Through United Methodist conferences and health boards, Global Ministries works to strengthen whole networks of health responses, from revitalization of facilities and staff training to building better water sources, developing sanitation facilities and promoting nutrition. Global Health concentrates on eradicating preventable diseases, such as malaria, HIV and AIDS, and COVID-19, and supporting the most vulnerable populations, including mothers, newborns and children.

Make a gift to Imagine No Malaria to assist the “Zero malaria” efforts of African health boards and facilities.

The post “Zero malaria” theme of World Malaria Day is the goal for UMC health work appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House
April 27, 2022 | ATLANTA

Teresa Cassua has battled malaria most of her life. She’s cared for family members who contracted the disease and often got sick herself. In her community near the Quessua health facility in East Angola, mosquitoes are difficult to escape during the rainy seasons, when the larvae hatch and the ravenous insects constantly bite.

“I want to start by thanking the team for helping me and my community,” Cassua said to the program evaluator. “Last year, my family suffered several cases of malaria. Now, with the United Methodist Imagine No Malaria campaign, we’ve learned how to get rid of pools of stagnant water, clear bushes from around our houses and remove solid waste to reduce the presence of mosquitoes nearby.”

She was impressed by the patient Quessua United Methodist youth volunteers who shared information about how malaria is spread and the importance of sleeping under mosquito nets every night. She even decided to talk to her son about taking the training and joining the team.   

Angola ranks as one of the 10 most affected countries for malaria cases and deaths in the world (World Health Organization 2020 World Malaria Report). It is the primary cause of mortality, as well as 35% of the demand for medical services and 40% of hospital admissions. The United Methodist Health Board of East Angola has steadfastly worked on prevention of, treatment for and community education about malaria since its formation in 2011.

Dr. Leo Garcia, a missionary, medical doctor and pastor working with the Quessua health facility, has helped to train local facilitators – youth, young adults, community leaders and church leaders – who fan out into the villages to share what they’ve learned in group presentations. Sometimes they also go door-to-door to reach more people.

Their campaigns have good success rates, reaching almost 25,000 people in the nine communities that surround the Quessua mission. Garcia says they have seen an increase in pregnant women coming to receive prenatal care, including intermittent preventative treatment (IPT) of malaria, periodic doses of preventive medicines that reduce the presence of the parasite that causes malaria. IPT improves birth rates and the health of mothers and newborn babies.

The number of patients has increased to the point that sometimes the staff at Quessua has trouble keeping up, but recently, the addition of a mobile clinic has meant that health services can be administered in the communities, relieving some of the burden at the Quessua health facility.

Dr. Garcia’s wife, Cleivy Benitez, who is also a doctor and theological teacher, leads some of the mobile clinic teams. She discovered places where children were showing signs of severe malnutrition, another factor that weakens the immune system and increases the likelihood of serious and fatal malaria cases.

Quessua therefore developed a program to track malnutrition in the communities and provide monthly food supplements to families whose children need the extra nutrition.

The educational methods designed to train facilitators for malaria prevention can also be used with different curriculum to train for COVID-19 prevention. The East Angola Health Board has developed this training program as well, with some of the same facilitators.

Teresa Cassua mentioned some of the real changes she has seen as her community chose to come together to prevent mosquitoes from spreading the malaria parasite. In addition to cleaning up their environment, 92% of the patients coming to the health facility for malaria are coming earlier, with onset of their first symptoms. Bed nets are now being hung properly and used effectively in households rather than being used as fishing nets and garden covers.

Cassua commented on the passion with which the United Methodist volunteers shared their knowledge in her community. “They really love helping us change our lives to improve the whole community,” she said.

Global Ministries supplied a major grant to East Angola for its Imagine No Malaria Campaign. Chicosseno Salvador, East Angola’s program manager for malaria, coordinated the implementation with Quessua staff.

Consider a gift to Imagine No Malaria. Community by community, efforts continue to eradicate the disease and the suffering it causes worldwide.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

The post Reducing malaria by increasing community awareness appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House
July 28, 2021 | ATLANTA

With little money and a dense forest with impassable roads between towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 28 miles is a long way to travel, especially for someone who is eight months pregnant. But Bibi was 25 years old, and she and her husband had already lost five children, two to miscarriages and three to fevers when they were just infants.

Her husband blamed her family and the traditional healers they sent her to, her family blamed her husband and sorcery, and in the middle was Bibi, pregnant again, praying that she wouldn’t lose another baby.

But something had changed since Bibi’s last pregnancy. In 2018, United Methodists in North Katanga began reconstruction of the Lupandilo Hospital in Kamina, about 28 miles away, with extensive facility upgrades.

The United Methodist Health Board in North Katanga partnered with Global Ministries for significant Global Health funding and with the North Texas and the West Ohio conferences for a generator to keep all the equipment up and running, even when municipal electricity fails.

For the past year, Lupandilo has served as a major staging area for a malaria campaign that reaches pregnant mothers (since most malaria deaths occur in infants and children under five); encourages cooperation in prenatal and postnatal visits and supplies medical care, nets and malaria medicines at no cost to patients. The campaign includes a community information initiative to help people know what malaria is, how it is transmitted, where to go for treatment and what to do to prevent it. From Lupandilo Hospital, health care workers, trainers and supplies are sent out to 24 smaller United Methodist health facilities and clinics across North Katanga. In a year with major flooding, that has not been easy.

In addition to in-person training, which is done according to COVID-19 protocols with appropriate prevention measures, the North Katanga Health Board has produced more than a thousand malaria-awareness radio spots to increase the reach of its messaging. This year, more women are seeking prenatal care at the hospital and at the other clinics, where they receive the facts about malaria. More than 11,000 nets have been distributed.

The campaign appears to be working. Dr. Hugo Ilunga, Imagine No Malaria program coordinator for the North Katanga Episcopal Area, made the following observations: “In the community, the result is a gradual, yet remarkable, decrease in the number of deaths related to malaria. There is a decrease in home deliveries and an increase in hospital deliveries following the strong awareness campaign, despite COVID-19. The health care workers report an increase in the proper use of mosquito nets almost in every household they visited as well as an increase in cases of consultation for fever.”

The North Katanga Health Board recorded 1,894 cases of death from malaria in 2018. By 2019, that number decreased to 1,475 cases. In 2020, the health board recorded 959 deaths.

It turns out, Bibi’s tragic losses had nothing to do with sorcery or even hereditary gynecological conditions. The cause of her babies’ deaths was likely malaria. She is a strong woman who was infected with malaria for a long time, but she showed few symptoms, so she was never tested. Her babies, however, both in the womb and once delivered, could not survive the malarial parasite.

Bibi left her family and her husband and traveled the 28 miles to Lupandilo Hospital, staying there for two months before she was due to deliver. She wanted to be very sure she did everything in her power to deliver a healthy baby this time. She learned much from the staff there, and she attended all her prenatal visits. She tested positive for malaria and accepted treatment.

She didn’t even stop to think about how she would pay for the medical care. For her, it was all for her baby. When her time came, she delivered a healthy boy. She and her husband were surprised and relieved to hear that all the costs had been covered by Lupandilo Hospital, thanks to an Imagine No Malaria grant from Global Ministries.

Efforts to fight malaria continue through Global Ministries’ Global Health unit. As Ilunga explained, the goal is “to reach the point of no longer needing to talk about a case of malaria in our community.”

Consider a gift to the Imagine No Malaria Advance #3021190, to provide the funding needed to send mothers like Bibi home with healthy babies.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

The post Falling malaria rates in Kamina attributed to awareness campaign and subsidized care appeared first on Global Ministries.

By Christie R. House 
April 23, 2021 | ATLANTA 

Two-year-old Aminata and her father arrived at the Hatfield Archer Memorial Methodist Hospital in Rotofunk, Sierra Leone, at midnight. Her breathing was shallow and rapid, and she was feverish, weak and pale.

“I was surprised to see a father playing a mother’s role,” noted the community health officer, Mohsen M. Lumeh, since most children arrive with their mothers. Testing and lab work revealed the baby had a complicated case of malaria and a secondary diagnosis of severe anemia. Lumeh ordered a blood transfusion, placed Aminata on oxygen and started her on antimalarial drugs immediately.

In just a week, Aminata fully recovered. At check-out, her father asked for the bill, but the cashier replied, “the bill has been settled by Imagine No Malaria.” The father left the hospital in amazement with a broad smile. Often, people wait too long to seek medical help because they fear receiving medical bills they can’t pay.

Scenes like this in Sierra Leone are repeated across Africa every day at United Methodist hospitals and clinics. Though malaria, a parasite carried from one person to the next by mosquitos, can be deadly if left untreated, it can be killed with proper treatment. Preventive measures go a long way in protecting communities from constant exposure.

World Malaria Day, April 25, celebrates the successes in the fight against malaria and urges countries, leaders and communities to do more to reach a malaria-free world.

Today, more than 400,000 people die from malaria each year; the majority are African children under five years of age. In fact, 90% of malaria cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, where The United Methodist Church has concentrated its Imagine No Malaria program.

Imagine No Malaria, set in motion by the 2008 General Conference as a partnership between United Methodist Communications and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is funded by donations from United Methodists of all ages and affiliations. The United Methodist Church was the first faith-based partner of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the largest international public-/private-funding source for health programs. INM programming is currently coordinated through Global Ministries’ Global Health unit, which focuses on strengthening facilities and assisting the UMC health boards. Comprehensive malaria programs include raising awareness about malaria, training health workers, providing supplies (including nets, medication, and test kits) and working to upgrade medical facilities.

Global Health integrates the work of INM with its Mother, Newborn and Child Health program to reach vulnerable children and their mothers, even before the children are born, when mothers come for prenatal visits. The two programs work with Global Health’s third emphasis, Health System Strengthening, to fill in gaps experienced by health facilities, such as older buildings, clean water access and sanitation.

United Methodist Health Boards in ten episcopal areas – Burundi, East Angola, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and the four areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (East Congo, Central Congo, South Congo and North Katanga) – each have an INM coordinator and work with Global Health to design programs relevant to their contexts.

Roland Fernandes, the general secretary for Global Ministries and UMCOR, has followed the transition and development of United Methodist health facilities during his years with the agency: “We’ve partnered with annual conferences in Africa to strengthen their health boards for more than a decade in order to enable their work through health care facilities and hospitals to treat and prevent malaria and meet other health needs. We are grateful to the health boards and the conferences they represent for their dedicated work to maintain and improve health services for everyone.

Just as Aminata in Sierra Leone survived because her father got her to the hospital in time, Amelia Toe, five months pregnant, received the medication she needed at John Dean Town Clinic in Liberia. Her path to the clinic was paved by her daughter, who attended the UMC school in John Dean Town, where the UM health board supported regular health education and malaria prevention sessions provided by the clinic. When her daughter (also named Amelia) visited home on the weekend, she found her mother gravely ill and in danger of losing her baby.

Though Toe had visited the nearest clinic, she received a prescription for medication she could not afford. Her daughter convinced her to make the trip to John Dean Town Clinic, where she knew her mother would receive help and medication whether or not she could pay. The four-hour trip was made in a hammock, but after a week at the clinic, Amelia Toe recovered. “I thank God for the doctor woman who went to the school to teach our children about malaria and all the sickness,” she said.

In addition to teaching in schools, INM in Liberia develops radio spots in its catchments areas, conducts community outreach with mobile clinics in market places and visits town hall meetings with women groups, youth groups, mission station directors and traditional leaders. In Burundi, similar outreach is conducted in schools and pastors receive training to disseminate information through congregations.

Health workers at Quessua Hospital in East Angola have increased awareness of malaria prevention measures by visiting communities. Patient intake is rising, more people are using nets and deaths from malaria have decreased.

In Central Congo last year, the INM office extended its educational program to work with 20 traditional healers to identify signs of malaria and refer cases to health facilities. “To date, statistics from United Methodist health facilities confirm that more than 286 patients have been referred by traditional healers to our care establishments,” noted Dr. Samy Longanga, Central Congo’s INM coordinator.

One of those traditional healers, Catherine Tshabilonda, said: “I now understand that the majority of children who died under traditional treatment had a serious malaria problem. I continue to be a traditional healer in my neighborhood, but if I receive patients with fever, headache or other signs of malaria, I now advise them to go to the Nganza UMC Health Center where I took my grandson for malaria treatment.”

Delivery of medicines, nets and other supplies to United Methodist facilities is a vital part of INM, which takes complicated logistical coordination, particularly during rainy seasons when roads are often impassable. Unfortunately, that is also when mosquitos breed.

The North Katanga area has tackled this problem by hiring massive trucks with huge tires. This gets the supplies to the major facilities and pick-up points. However, the rest of the journey to the rural clinics must be completed by motorcycles.

Somehow, the deliveries are made. Lorraine Charinda, an agriculturist missionary in North Katanga, thanks God every day for this work. She says in the three years she has served with Kamisamba Farm, she’s had malaria more times than she can count. “This

is the worst place for insects. Malaria cases are very high, and people cannot afford the medicine, which Imagine No Malaria supplies for free. Without Imagine No Malaria, there would be many dead here. So, I really appreciate that work.”

One way of commemorating World Malaria Day is to make a gift to Global Health to continue the life-saving legacy of Imagine No Malaria. 

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor for Global Ministries and UMCOR.

The post Still thanking God for Imagine No Malaria appeared first on Global Ministries.

Patience Zakari, a young mother in rural Nigeria, was afraid to take her children to a clinic when they were sick with fever. She feared the cost of treatment, given her limited budget, which made it difficult to pay for essentials like food and school fees. She preferred, instead, to go to a local chemist to buy cheaper malaria drugs, but they didn’t always work.

When her twins, who were still babies, became ill, she feared they would not survive. She found a clinic operated by the Nigerian United Methodist Church, which was screening for and treating malaria at no cost to the patients. “I, my twins, and my other children all received treatment and are well again. Now that we are receiving free malaria treatment, I no longer fear going to the clinic,” Zakari said.

A strong, integrated health system that families and individuals can trust to give the best care possible is not a given in many parts of the world. In Nigeria, United Methodist health facilities in rural areas are working to improve their outreach into the communities they serve.

The Nigeria Rural Health Program, operated by the Nigeria United Methodist Health Board, oversees 16 rural health clinics in four annual conferences within the Nigeria Episcopal Area. It also supports the newly established Jalingo Hospital, constructed in 2017, thanks to an Imagine No Malaria (INM) Hospital Revitalization Grant.

A Health System Strengthening operational grant from Global Ministries’ Global Health unit supports the operations required to manage the health board’s country office. The grant provides salaries for key program staff, like the health board coordinator, Dr. Godfrey Ogbu. It makes possible supervisory visits and on-the-job training of facility staff at the supported health facilities. This integrated and comprehensive approach to the health needs in Nigeria increases access and improves the quality of services delivered.

A year-long Imagine No Malaria program that began in June 2019 provides long-lasting insecticide bed nets, prophylaxis to prevent malaria, and medications and supplies for diagnosis and treatment. Education encouraging behavioral changes to prevent malaria are included in this outreach to community members.

The Nigeria Health Board team travels to United Methodist primary health-care facilities to equip and empower clinic staff with technical information to increase their response. Moses Alikali, who serves as the INM officer in Nigeria, reports that he and Ogbu visited the 16 facilities to monitor malaria programs four times between June and December last year, despite the difficult terrain. Alikali outlines the details involved in one of these visits: “We are making sure that the beneficiaries are receiving free malaria treatment, that health facility staff are adhering to World Health Organization malaria treatment protocol, and that proper documentation of patients and accountability of malaria commodities are recorded.”

Through collaboration with their Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and INM teams, the Nigeria Health Board works toward quality care for all patients who visit the UMC facilities, particularly pregnant women and children under five, who are the most vulnerable to disease. Women who come for prenatal visits can receive medication that will protect them and their babies from contracting malaria. They can also be tested for HIV and if they test positive, start antiretroviral medications. With proper treatment, HIV-positive mothers have a good chance of delivering HIV-free newborns.

This work is vital because Nigeria accounts for 10% of the world’s maternal deaths and ranks 6th in the world for mortality of children under age five. Malaria infection during pregnancy raises risks for both mother and fetus. Maternal anemia, fetal loss, premature delivery and low birth-weight are a few of the dangers.

But the first step is gaining the trust of families so that mothers are aware of their need for the services and come for prenatal visits.

Marta Sunday, who lives near the United Methodist Taka Wurkum facility, found the treatment she needed after she’d tried others: “I was sick for weeks. Even though I was receiving treatment from another health facility, I didn’t recover. At Taka Wurkum, the doctor checked me and explained the reasons why I was still sick. He said either the malaria drugs I bought from the market had expired or I wasn’t taking the right dose. Within two days, the medication he gave me changed everything, and I am feeling good. My baby is calm and healthy since she was treated in this facility. I thank the mission clinic and the doctor in charge who has taken the time to see that these services reach us.”

The Nigeria Health Board also received essential medications and equipment from a HSS Primary Healthcare grant to support gaps in medications and supplies in the targeted health-care clinics. In addition, funds will support the rehabilitation of seven health facilities in Nigeria.

Along with facility revitalization and provision of essential supplies, the HSS program invests in staff development to improve the quality of care. Through a Global Ministries-funded obstetric training event held in the Philippines, a doctor and nurse team received hands-on Caesarian-section training that they brought back to Jalingo Hospital and are sharing with their colleagues.

Alikali says community involvement is key for the successful implementation and sustainability of malaria control intervention. “Already in the communities are infrastructures, like community leaders and church leaders, who provide avenues for entry,” he noted.

In its first six months, the INM project directly impacted the lives of 21,075 people, including children, pregnant women, and others. More than 2,038 people who might have died of malaria were saved. The project made quality malaria medications available in hard-to-reach communities. And, the number of patients that visited the health facilities where the INM project has been implemented tripled to 23,991.

The success of this project has boosted the confidence and enthusiasm of the staff in the facilities and the level of community trust as well. This abundant trust has gone a long way to increase health and well-being in remote areas. Receiving correct diagnoses and effective treatments at little or no cost has increased the number of families seeking treatment. The Nigerian Health Board therefore anticipates a general reduction in morbidity in the communities they serve, especially for women and their babies.

Christie R. House is a consulting editor and writer with Global Ministries.

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