To demonstrate that faith can be used as a force for good living the Tony Blair Faith Foundation through Faith Act has engaged about 20 Ambassadors on malaria prevention.
Given the objective of the training, Josephine Muhairwe said that they want to demonstrate that faith works in terms of malaria since it is a killer disease and since Sierra Leone has a record of religious tolerance they have decided to bring both Muslims and Christians together to serve as Ambassadors.
She disclosed that the country ranks among the worst in the world on the Human Development Index, particularly because of the extreme poor maternal and child death statistic, where the most vulnerable are dying from preventable and treatable conditions.
She added that this is why the Ministry of Health and other partners have plans to develop a mechanism to eradicate malaria and it is in this regard that the Tony Blair Faith Foundation supported and developed a public health messaging programme on malaria through a strong partnership between faith leaders and organisations.
The five areas where the Ambassadors are expected to preach on includes that of the daily use of treated bed net, to keep the environment always clean, that pregnant women visit health care centers, and the continuous use of prescribed drugs.
She gave a statistic of their work so far, training of malaria faith Ambassador 230, malaria faith champions 3,155; homes and families sensitized by the champions 40, 893; and people reached via community sensitization 65, 952.
The Deputy Minister of Health Mohamed Tarawally said this demonstrates the ministry’s commitment to malaria programme, as malaria is becoming a national menace in the country, with 40% of cases reported being malaria related.
He thanked the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for the initiative as the foundation does not only focus on health but conduct research in other areas. The Deputy Minister hoped that this process will make people all over the country especially in the urban areas to be sensitized about malaria.
By Betty Milton
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