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The School Net Program Reinforces Malaria Prevention through School Children Standing outside a health clinic in Ruvuma, Tanzania, you might be surprised to learn that the majority of patients who line up at the clinic every day are suffering from malaria. Many of them are young children. The question of whether malaria is a problem in the community is universally met with the same response: Yes! However, we do have weapons in the fight against malaria. Insecticide treated nets (ITNs) are an extremely effective way to prevent malaria at both an individual and a community level. That is why the VectorWorks project is happy to have supported implementation of the third annual round of the School Net Program (SNP3) – a school-based ITN distribution pilot – in Ruvuma and two other regions of Tanzania. Through SNP3, almost 500,000 LLINs were distributed directly to primary school students in Tanzania’s Southern Zone regions of Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma in 2015. ITN issuing alongside social and behavior change communication (SBCC) messaging encourages children to be advocates for net use in their community. As one of the most at-risk groups for developing malaria, young children are taught the importance of sleeping under the LLIN every night to protect themselves and their families. This is a message they are eager to share at home. Maria, a Regional Academic Officer in Ruvuma and member of the SNP3 Regional Technical Team, was pleased when her own children began reminding her to hang their ITNs each night. They are always telling me “teacher said we should hang our nets before we go to sleep”. It’s moments like that which remind her how much of a difference the School Net Program is making in her community. And Maria is not alone in recognizing the difference that is being made by the SNP. Thousands of households in the Southern Zone are now benefitting from the protection afforded by the ITNs. Maria is clear, if it weren’t for SNP, many of these households would have no malaria protection at all. “It is thanks to the SNP that many families in Ruvuma sleep under a mosquito net now.” Funding Acknowledgement: “This story is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) under the terms of USAID/JHU Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-14-00057. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID/PMI or the United States Government.” VectorWorks is a five-year global project, funded by the President’s Malaria Initiative, that aims to scale up vector control for malaria prevention through improved distribution of insecticide treated nets, optimal roll-out of promising alternative vector control tools, and global policies that are informed by the use of monitoring and evaluation data. We are committed to a future where no one dies from malaria. Visit www.vector-works.org to learn more. A teacher explains the usage of ITNs in her classroom during a school-wide ITN distribution in Namtumbo Songea, Tanzania. © 2015 Vector Works/Mark Bashagi, Courtesy of Photoshare Written by: Claire Gillum Contributions from: George Kabulika, Gabrielle Hunter, Maria Makala
