Our final month working on the Zikomo Malaria Prevention project was a great success. September we saw our first actual Malaria Prevention volunteer come out to the projects. Martin Thomas worked hand in hand with Alexander Mpota, our malaria prevention manager, to get the job done. Getting the final houses done was a tough task. September coming into October, which is known as the suicidal month due to the heat, was really hot. Spraying houses in the full spray suit, with face mask and goggles was a tiring job. None the less the houses were sprayed, the nets impregnated and the education was done. Many thanks to Martin and Alexander for doing a sterling job.
As of yet not one of our mosquito nets have been seen in the lake being used to as fishing nets. With all of our nets having tags, they are easy to distinguish from other nets. When we have found people using other nets in the lake, we are still following up by going to there houses and checking our records. So far we have not become aware of any foul play.
Goals Accomplished
Table 1: Final recording for September 2008
Malaria Prevention Project
Final Month Figures
Month Total
Month September
No. Houses Sprayed 47
Amount Fendona Used 2000
no. Nets Distributed 86
no. Personal Nets Impregnated 33
Total no. of Nets 119
Total Hrs Worked 34
Total Number of Houses Refused 5
Total Houses Completed 47
no. Houses Left 2
Table 1 above is the total monthly figures for September 2008. During September we managed to spray 47 houses with FENDONA®. On average we are using about 42.6 ml of FENDONA per house, this is up from 37ml in July, but we are still above the estimate use of 33ml per house.
For September we distributed 86 new nets and impregnated them. This means that we are using on average about 1.8 new nets per house. If you also take into consideration there own nets that have been repaired and re-impregnated, this bring the total number of used per house from 1.9 nets per house to 2.5 nets per house.
In the month we worked for about 34 hours. This averages about 8.5 hours a week. All of this work was done in two working weeks, as by the end of them we were finished with the project.
Table 1 also shows the number of houses that refused the Indoor Residual Spray (IRS). For September this figure was 5.
Of the 175 houses in Namakoma Village by beginning of September 126 had been completed, a further 47 were completed in August which leaves the remaining total being 2. These remaining 2 houses don’t exist anymore due to one being broken down by an elephant which was looking for maize, and the other one is believed to have burnt down.
Overall review of month
Phase Two of Zikomo Malaria Prevention Project is now finally complete. The Project implementation is complete. The next step is Phase Three which is Monitoring and Evaluation. The monitoring and Evaluation needs to be done at least 6 months after the project started. So January 2009 will be a good time to re-visit each home stead, redo the IRS and re-impregnate all the nets and do checks on the distributed nets.
Many thanks to the Zikomo Malaria Project team, our sponsors and for all the volunteers who helped to get the job done. Namakoma Village is extremely grateful.
