Mosquito-borne diseases are a major challenge in our community. We’re currently in the middle of the rainy season which brings with it the dangers of dengue. In the communities where we work most children under the age of 15 fall ill with this disease, affecting not only their health but their ability to go to school. ISF works together with local authorities and the villagers themselves to combat and prevent the spread of this disease.

Our communities do not have adequate water supply and instead people use large containers or jars to collect water for daily use. These containers are big breeding grounds for mosquito larvae and present a big risk during rainy season. In order to deal with this issue and also to protect our students and their families, our nurses enlisted the help of the head of the Local Government Healthcare Centre. He understood our plight and was and happy to provide Abate larvicide, which is used to kill mosquito larvae, to ISF to distribute for free to all the local villagers in our community.

Last week our nurse, social workers and some of our students went into the community to raise awareness of the risks of mosquito-borne diseases. They also promoted and initiated prevention measures, such as mosquito nets, cleaning stagnant water and demonstrating how to use Abate medicine.

The project was a welcomed by our students’ families and their neighbours alike. One of local village leaders said, “I am sincerely grateful to ISF for all their supports to the poor people in the community and for working in partnership with me to help them. Since ISF has started their programme in our community, I have seen a lot of positive things happening, this medicine is one of them”.