From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
No fewer than 8.8 million mosquito nets was recently distributed to 18 million families in Kano State by the Global Fund, to strengthen the fight against malaria.
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics.
The Global Fund, in a statement, posted on their verified Twitter (X), account explained that the distribution was successfully done in two weeks through the effective help of logisticians, conveyors, store managers, data managers, distributors, and several others involved in the distribution.
It added that with Global Fund investments, and despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, conflict, displacement and difficult terrain, more than 87 million mosquito nets have been distributed across Nigeria in the last five years.
It said the gesture was in expression of its unflinching support to families in Nigeria to fight malaria through preventive measures, particularly the option of sleeping under treated mosquito net.
The Fund said that it recently observed that after years of steady declines, malaria cases and deaths are on the rise, stressing that globally, malaria kills a child every minute.
It confirmed that Nigeria has the world’s largest burden of the disease, accounting for 31 per cent of all malaria-related deaths in 2021, and while the number of people dying from malaria in the country has decreased by about 25 per cent in the last two decades, the disease still claims more than 190,000 lives in Nigeria every year, and most of the deaths occur among young children under the age of five.
The Global Fund said it’s working in collaboration with the governments, non-governmental organization partners and local communities, in the fight against malaria in Nigeria, including through one of the world’s largest and most complex campaigns to ensure everyone sleeps under the protection of an insecticide-treated mosquito net.
It explained that before the COVID-19 pandemic, families collect mosquitoe nets at a central distribution point within their communities, which often led to overcrowding and some families being missed. “But in a new door-to-door approach, nets are taken to individual homes, resulting in more families receiving nets quickly and with ease.”
Chinasa Abani, The Global Fund logistician involved in the distribution, said that Kano State campaign was a massive logistical undertaking that moved 8.8 million nets from a state warehouse in Kano to 44 local government storage facilities, to more than 3,600 local distribution hubs, to finally millions of individual homes.
She said that smooth execution of the net deliveries was made possible by the expertise of a team of logisticians involve in the exercise which she was one of them.
She said: “To move the nets from the local governments to the distribution hub, we resorted to smaller vehicles because the roads are narrower. In the riverine areas, we used canoes; in sandy areas, we used vehicles with big tires; We also used horses, carts and donkeys in some locations.”
Ismail Yusuf, a conveyor that worked at the mosquito net distribution hub in Gabasawa, said they ensured that the correct number of nets are dispatched to the correct destinations.
Abdullahi Saidu, a store manager, at a another distribution hub in Dala, in northwest Kano State, said he worked to ensure quality control of the nets, and that the correct number of nets come in and out of the warehouse.
Chiamaka Dorathy Ezeh was involved in the training the door-to-door distributors how to use the mobile application that allows them to enter the number of nets they issue per household, the coordinates of the house, and the names of the recipients.
She said the data is uploaded to a central database, which is monitored and analyzed every evening to ensure every community is covered by the campaign.
Aisha Aliyu Yaro was involved in door-to-door distribution of the net. Aisha, alongside others, travels by motorbike to each community and then walks from house to house, knocking on doors to distribute the nets and then uploading the relevant data.
She worked alongside an educator who discusses the proper use and maintenance of the nets with each family they visit. “I am motivated to participate in the campaign because of the way mosquitoes are affecting people, especially children. My children, who use the net, are safe, but there are other children who are not covered,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Society For Family Health (SFH), in response, appreciated The Global Fund for the intervention, describing as a step forward to defeating malaria in Nigeria.
The SFH, in a statement on their verified Twitter (X) account also commended the Kano State Government, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) for the intervention.
“This partnership highlights our active contribution to the ongoing campaign to end malaria, making meaningful impact towards creating a malaria-free nation.”