Mosquito Net Distribution

USAID, in coordination with Barack Obama, set up a mosquito net distribution program. They started along the lakeshore, where Malaria is most prevalent and mosquito nets are the most needed. The idea was for every hospital in each district to conduct a survey to determine how many nets would be needed in each household. I attended a meeting at the Nkhotakota District Hospital to learn more and represent Peace Corps.

At the meeting, I learned the initial count was 80,000 nets were needed. When a second count was conducted, 160,000 nets were needed. Where did the additional 80,000 nets come from? The HSAs made up excuses.

Maybe pregnant women had delivered their babies?  The population growth in Malawi is astounding, but 80,000 babies? Not plausible.

Maybe people moved to Nkhotakota since the last count? 80,000 people found the real estate in Nkhotakota to be that charming? Probably not.

The excuses continued. I was bewildered. It was the Friday before the big week of distribution and we were short 80,000 nets.

Dwambazi was scheduled for the last day of distribution – the following Friday – since we are the furthest hospital from Nkhotakota – at the border of Nkhata Bay district.

On Friday, people lined the road to the hospital, many sitting under trees for several hours. They were anxious. One man lifted a brick (jokingly, I think) to throw at another man. USAID never came. I wondered if they ran out of nets. People in the village and hospital workers turned to me as if I had the answer. I did not.

On Monday, amid the Under-5 Clinic madness, USAID came and dropped off over 8,000 nets for Dwambazi. The nets were sealed in plastic and split into two large piles. The HSAs calmly separated the names alphabetically and divided the village accordingly. In order to make this go smoothly, people sat on the ground until their name was called and we handed them the number of nets their household needed.

Four hours later, the nets were distributed, the HSAs were exhausted and it was well-after lunch. It was satisfying – but only for a moment. I can only hope that the nets are being used for the correct purpose. Ideally, if they are, then there will be no more Malaria cases at the hospital.

However, it is common practice (especially along the lakeshore) for people to sell their mosquito nets to fishermen to use to catch fish. They sell nets for about 500 kwacha each (the nets are sold in stores for about 800 kwacha) so that they can buy food for their families. It’s discouraging, but sometimes people see what is tangible (eating for several weeks) before the benefits of something that isn’t as noticeable (hanging a net over your bed – it just hangs there and maybe you won’t get Malaria).

Malaria is the most commonly diagnosed illness – but it’s also overly diagnosed. It’s a catch-all word. If someone is sick, they say they have Malaria. The other day a woman told me she had had Malaria this morning, but now she is feeling fine. However over-diagnosed it is, Malaria is a true problem along the lakeshore and it’s unfortunate that it is taken so lightly in some cases and in other cases, sometimes buying food for your family is more important than hanging on to a net.

With this program, I am hoping to visit the homes of people who received nets and make sure they are using them properly or make sure they even have them at all.