Surfaid: Malaria Free Mentawai

Goal: Work with village communities and existing health services to significantly & sustainably reduce the burden of malaria.

About the Project
SurfAid is working in close collaboration with health department officials and local health care providers to implement this exciting Mentawai wide program to eliminate malaria. SurfAid will apply experience gained in previously successful anti-malaria endeavors to expand activities throughout all villages in Mentawai. These efforts will provide community members with effective means of preventing malaria and cutting edge technology for quickly detecting and treating malaria when necessary.

Timeline: April 2006 until March 2011

Objectives

• Provide malaria education to all Mentawai community members
• Provide mosquito nets to all Mentawai community members
• Create sustainable supply system for mosquito nets throughout Mentawai villages
• Develop surveillance and response system with Mentawai Health Department
• Support health posts in the training and use of rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) and artesenuate combined therapy (ACT) for detection and treatment of malaria

Coverage Area
Target areas:  209
Target population:  65,000

History: Prior to SurfAid, malaria control and treatment in the Mentawais was virtually nonexistent.  Although the islands do have Health Department outposts, they are not readily accessible by many villages and are only periodically staffed.  In addition, the health workers were not trained on even rudimentary malaria detection tests and the outpost was frequently out of malaria treatments.

In 2001, SurfAid began piloting the Malaria Control Program (MCP) in Taileleu village.  In 2002, SurfAid extended the program to the nearby village of Malilimok where 34% of children under 12 on the days of testing had malaria. In 2004, SurfAid expanded the project to more than 13,200 people in 17 villages. SurfAid also recruited a team of 24 local field workers, called community facilitators, to take the SurfAid mission to the heart of every target village.

Early results show great success. Since the start of the pilot trials, SurfAid’s Malaria Control Project has resulted in a 90% reduction in malaria-related death and suffering in target areas.

In 2006, the Malaria Control Program evolved into the Malaria Free Mentawai Project, with the goal of expanding core malaria control activities to all 203 villages in the Mentawais, a total of nearly 75,000 people.

Now that Killer Dana and Surfaid are working together, you can help with Surfaid’s Malaria Control project by donating $2 on our site >> www.KillerDana.com

For more stories like this one, please check out Surfaids website: www.surfaidinternational.org