Malaria Control & Prevention Through Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) Project Final Report
The Malaria Control and Prevention Through Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) in Bwerenga project was implemented in Bwerenga, Wakiso District, Uganda, from January to May 2026. The Community Impact Grant project was led by the Rotary Club of Bwerenga, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kigo and the Rotaract Club of Bwerenga. The Rotary Clubs also worked alongside Malaria Partners Uganda and Katabi Town Council, with support from the Wakiso District Health Office, local LC1 leadership, and Village Health Teams (VHTs).
Project Need & Rationale
Bwerenga, a peninsula community in Wakiso District with a warm tropical climate and conditions that favor mosquito breeding, remains particularly vulnerable to malaria. While national malaria control efforts exist, localized interventions like indoor residual spraying (IRS) are critical for reducing transmission in high-risk areas.
A needs assessment conducted by the Rotary Club of Bwerenga at the end of 2024 found that [of the 106 individuals surveyed in Bwerenga and neighboring villages]:
- 36% of respondents experienced malaria in the previous three months
- 46.23% acknowledged that children in their households had missed school due to malaria.
- This finding emphasized malaria's broader implications beyond health. Tt also affects education and, by extension, long-term community development. School absenteeism linked to malaria can hinder academic progress and reinforce cycles of poverty.
- 63.2% were willing to adopt both Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) and mosquito
repellents. An additional 30.19% (32 out of 106) accepted only mosquito repellents.- There was generally strong support for mosquito control measures, especially for integrated approaches involving both IRS and repellents.
Based on the asssessment, the Rotary Club recognized the need for a localized IRS intervention, stronger household-level data collection, and greater community awareness on malaria prevention practices.
Project Objectives
- Raise community awareness on malaria control and prevention and encourage behavioral changes (environmental handling, personal hygiene, bednet handling, and usage, use of protective clothing etc).
- Implement Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) to reduce the population of malaria vectors in households.
- Evaluating factors facilitating the transmission of malaria in Bwerenga
Implementation - Approach & Activities
The project moved through a phased approach: a pre-visit to secure buy-in and coordinate logistics, a community mobilization push, a concurrent implementation day combining health services and education, and follow-on school and environmental activities.
The project began with a pre-visit to Mityana North, where the team engaged district leadership, health authorities, school administrators, and Village Health Teams (VHTs), including the District Health Officer, the Chief Administrative Officer, the In-Charge of Mityana Health Centre IV, and the District Vector Control Officer. Permissions were formally sought and granted, and logistics were coordinated with local suppliers. Community mobilization followed, supported by a Ministry of Health mobile clinic van that helped inform and prepare households across the targeted villages ahead of the main implementation day.
Pre-IRS Preparation & Community Engagement
The project team began by engaging the Local Council (LC) Management Team to align on sampling strategy and identify vulnerable community members and target areas. Nine community leaders received sensitization on malaria control and the project's goals, and went on to help mobilize their communities ahead of the launch.
The project was formally launched with more than 200 community members in attendance, including: LC1 leadership, Malaria Partners Uganda officials, 20 Rotarians, 10 Rotaractors, a 6-member Red Cross field team, 4 VHTs, and 2 Katabi Town Council officials. NTV Uganda was on hand to capture the launch.
The spraying team (VHTs, community members, and Red Cross volunteers) and a separate mobilization team (Rotarians, Rotaractors, VHTs, and the Red Cross team) were both trained on the project's aims, goals, and objectives, along with proper household entry procedures and community mobilization techniques.
Using convenience and purposive sampling with input from LC leadership, VHTs and community leaders identified a total of 811 households across six zones of Bwerenga
(Bwerenga Central, Mukuba landing site, Nakajjaga, Kawempe, Jomayi, and Kimbejja), prioritizing households with children between 3 months and 10 years old. Two additional zones outside Bwerenga, Kakindu and Kiwulwe landing site, were added by public demand.
To formalize the collaboration, MOUs were signed between the implementing Rotary and Rotaract clubs and Malaria Partners International, and 22 sprayers and data collectors signed confidentiality agreements before beginning fieldwork. The team also developed and printed 30 copies of standard operating procedures covering household entry, community mobilization, PPE use, and IRS spraying, along with 950 household questionnaires to standardize data capture.
Community mobilization materials, including 700 posters and brochures, a launch backdrop banner, 2 tear-drop banners, a flyer, and 6 local radio announcements, were procured and distributed ahead of spraying. Pictures of the banners + brochures:
IRS Implementation
Before spraying began, the team held a refresher training with the 10 community spraying members, 4 VHTs, 6 Red Cross members, 6 Rotaractors, and 4 Rotarians to review the IRS process and best practices.
The RC Bwerenga team also developed and printed 30 copies of standard operating procedures covering household entry, community mobilization, PPE use, and IRS spraying, along with 950 household questionnaires to standardize data capture.
The project procured 130 litres of Deltamethrin insecticide for household spraying, along with safety equipment for the spraying team: 13 spray pumps, 10 pairs of gumboots, 10 respirators, a box of face masks, 10 overalls, 10 head gears, 10 pairs of safety goggles, 10 pairs of socks, 10 pairs of safety gloves, and a box of nitrile gloves. A total of 811 homes received IRS.
The project's 10 data collectors were separately equipped with malaria vests or reflectors, pens, and data collection tools.
Community Engagement & Data Collection
Awareness-building ran throughout the project through multiple channels: focus group discussions, community meetings, household-level engagement, posters, flyers, and backdrop banners, along with support from LC1 leadership and local radio announcements in Bwerenga Central and Kawempe.
VHTs, sprayers, Red Cross members, and Rotary/Rotaract club members led four dedicated community awareness sessions, including the LC meeting, the project launch, and sessions at Kawempe and Kiwulwe landing site, on malaria control and prevention and Rotary's role in the project. Even some households that initially declined participation later called the team back to request spraying.
Alongside spraying, the project team collected structured survey data from all 811 households to better understand what was driving malaria transmission locally. After obtaining consent from each household head, trained data collectors administered a questionnaire capturing household size, wall and roof construction, bed net ownership and treatment status, and malaria cases over the past year. All project staff involved in data collection signed a confidentiality agreement, and the resulting dataset was analyzed using statistical software (R and Stata) to test for relationships between these factors and malaria occurrence.
Bwerenga Central accounted for the largest share of participating households (more than 200), followed by Nakajjaga and Mukuba (about 75 each), with Kakindu representing the smallest share (about 30). Just 2 of the 811 households, about 0.25%, had received any kind of insecticide spraying in the previous six months, underscoring how new this level of vector control was for the community.
Household size emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor of malaria risk in the data: each additional person living in a household was associated with roughly a 5% increase in malaria cases. Household size itself varied widely by zone, from an average of more than 6 people per household in Jomayi to about 3 in Mukuba landing site, where most homes are single-room structures.
Housing construction also appeared to matter. Households with mud walls had more than double the malaria cases of other wall types, a pattern the data suggests may be explained by poor sealing that makes it easier for mosquitoes to enter the home, while households with tiled roofs saw roughly 39% fewer malaria cases than other roofing types.
Bed net use was common, reported by about 70% of households, but ownership or use on its own was not a statistically significant predictor of lower malaria risk. Net treatment status told a clearer story: households using insecticide-treated nets reported malaria in about 67% of cases, compared to about 76% among households using untreated nets, a statistically significant difference that reinforces the added protective value of treated nets over untreated ones.
Even so, malaria prevalence remained high across the board, around 65% regardless of bed net type, pointing to a high-transmission environment where no single tool, nets included, is enough on its own. The findings reinforce the project's premise that IRS, bed net use and treatment, and environmental and behavioral interventions need to work together to meaningfully reduce malaria in Bwerenga.
Over the course of the one-month data collection period, VHTs also conducted two mop-up days with 5 volunteers to reach more than 40 households that had been missed in the initial spraying round. The team also ran 6 local radio announcements, and secured a national TV news broadcast to extend awareness beyond the directly sprayed households.
Project Outcomes
- Direct beneficiaries: 811 households
- Indirect beneficiaries: ~3000 individuals
- Rotarians and Rotaractors engaged: 40
- ITNs distributed: N/A
- RDTs administered: N/A
- CHWs/VHTs trained: 4 VHTs were trained on IRS and data collection
- 10 community members trained in IRS and mobilization
Qualitative Outcomes
Early engagement with LC leadership paid off in strong turnout at launch, with over 200 community members — including local officials, Malaria Partners Uganda staff, Red Cross volunteers, and Rotary/Rotaract members — taking part from the outset. Training the spraying and mobilization teams together on the project's goals and household-entry protocols meant that VHTs, community members, and club volunteers were all aligned on both the technical and community-facing sides of the work before spraying began.
Standard operating procedures and printed questionnaires improved consistency in both spraying practice and household-level data capture. The addition of two zones outside the original project boundary, driven by public demand, points to demand for the intervention extending beyond the initially planned area. Mop-up visits to previously missed households and sustained radio and TV coverage helped extend the project's reach past the households directly sprayed.
Lessons Learned
- Scale up distribution of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs): Public health authorities should prioritize the widespread distribution of treated bednets, ensuring that all households have access to effective protection.
- Promote proper and consistent bednet use: Community education programs should emphasize the importance of using bednets correctly every night to maximize their protective benefits.
- Replace or retreat old and damaged nets: Regular monitoring and replacement of worn-out bednets should be implemented to maintain effectiveness.
- Integrate additional malaria control measures: Strategies such as indoor residual spraying, distribution of mosquitoe repellants, environmental management (e.g., draining stagnant water), and improved housing conditions should complement bednet use.
- Strengthen community awareness and behavior change initiatives: Health education campaigns should address misconceptions and encourage preventive practices beyond bednet use.
- Further research: Future assessments should explore other contributing factors such as socioeconomic status, access to healthcare, and seasonal variations in malaria transmission.
Conclusion
This project created awareness on Malaria control and prevention, and implemented IRS at the house hold level and further demonstrated that both bed net use and bed net treatment status are significantly associated with malaria occurrence among households in Bwerenga. Households that used bednets experienced lower malaria prevalence compared to those that did not, while insecticide-treated nets provided greater protection than untreated nets. These findings confirm that bednet-related factors play an important role in malaria prevention.
However, the persistence of high malaria prevalence across all groups indicates that bednets alone are insufficient to completely eliminate malaria transmission. This suggests the influence of additional environmental, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors that must be addressed through comprehensive intervention strategies and awareness drives.
Project staff Joseph Mayanja, collecting data in HH at Kiwuulwe landing site
Rotaractor Esther Najjombwe collecting Data in Bwerenga Central
Trained community member sprays a House hold in Nakajjaga Zone
Fetching water for the far-away Households
