a model of success in fighting malaria

April 25, 2007

How one community in Angola is beating the disease.

Over the past two weeks, we have devoted this space to the fight against malaria in Africa. We described how the world is mobilizing against the disease, and how more effective management can ensure that new attention and resources have the greatest impact.

The challenge is global, but the impact is local. This week, we take you to one place where the impact is being felt. In Kuito, capital of Angola's Bie Province, a community-based malaria management program has saved thousands of lives — and could be a model for rolling back not only disease, but poverty, too.

Kuito is recovering from a civil war that left the region — and its healthcare system — in ruins. Controlling malaria is part of that recovery. Despite being preventable and treatable, the mosquitoborne disease is Angola's number one killer.

Since 2004, ExxonMobil has supported Africare, a U.S.-based non-profit group that is using a holistic approach to restore primary healthcare in Bie Province. The centerpiece of this effort was the rebuilding of the Ekovongo health center, which had been destroyed during the war. Opened in March 2006, the facility now serves nearly 14,000 people in 18 nearby villages.

Africare's approach involves integrated management of all major childhood illnesses, including malaria. Prevention is the priority. At the Ekovongo health center, local workers were trained in the diagnosis and treatment of malaria, and patients received bed nets, a simple but effective prevention tool. Activistaswere trained and sent to local communities to continuously reinforce the importance of using bed nets.

The result was an 80 percent dropin malaria cases in just three years. That's a success by any measure.

Today, April 25th, is Africa Malaria Day, commemorating a commitment in 2000 by African nations to work together to defeat the disease. Since then, ExxonMobil has contributed nearly $100 million to African community projects and is committing an additional $10 million this year to fight malaria. In recognition of today's anniversary, we are also supporting distribution of bed nets in each of our key Africa partner countries.

Through concerted, community-based action, malaria can be controlled, as Africare's experience in Angola proves. And this approach can have benefits elsewhere. Success in stopping malaria can breed success in reducing poverty, for example, by demonstrating the power of local organization and effective management. Malaria is a challenge — and in overcoming it together, we can learn important lessons that may help us overcome other challenges, too.