By Michael McLeod, Board Member, Malaria Partners International, Rotary Club of Federal Way
“…you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge,…
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business…”
from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol
There are reasons to believe in the almost miraculous. To believe in what compassion and hard work and science, what business know-how, optimism, determination and worldwide pulling together, can achieve. I’ve been fortunate to witness this over the past year with Malaria Partners International (MPI).
As you’ll read in this article about the world’s first consequential malaria vaccine, it prevents severe malaria 30% of the time. Most of those malaria kills are children under the age of five. The next biggest group is new mothers. The WHO just released its estimate that almost 627,000 people died of malaria last year. On a global scale, this vaccine can have “a massive public health impact.” Indeed.
And we’ll continue to train and equip thousands of wonderful community health worker volunteers to rapidly diagnose and provide first treatment for malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition in their communities. Together we’ll provide treated mosquito bed nets by the score. Believe in the almost miraculous. We need you. The world needs you.
Reflections on our Malaria Work in Zambia – How we got here, where we go next
On September 8th, 2023, the Rotary International President Gordon McInally announced that Rotary and its partners World Vision and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be implementing the Rotary Healthy Communities Challenge which will build on the successes of the Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia project and scale that work to 3 other countries.
Strengthening Community Case-based Surveillance for Malaria in North Bank Regions of The Gambia
Malaria Partners West Africa has been engaging with PATH and The Gambia’s Ministry of Health and National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to design a new initiative aimed at strengthening community case-based surveillance for malaria in the North Bank Regions of The Gambia.
Malaria Ends With Me
By Peter Mubanga Ng’andu – Rotaract Club of Lusaka
As a Project Management & M&E professional, I believe in data driven interventions and that’s why when an opportunity to volunteer in Data Quality Audits (DQA) emerged, I gladly took it in the spirit of service above self.