Dear Samuel

Can I doublecheck with you about Ingrid Munro and Jamii Bora and Grassroots communities fighting malaria. If I ask people in washington DC who know her how to contact her, is there someone in your network around Rusinga Island http://www.friendsofrusingaisland.org/ who would want to find out whether a branch of Jamii Bora can come to your area and what type of people you need to find to help develop such a branch

Maybe I am being over-optimistic but this interview with her suggests she wants to go from being mainly Nairobi to the whole country and I believe that if we can get a nationwide microcredit jamii bora it can also become the knowledge infrastructure partner for other grassroots developments - not the least end malaria deaths by 2015 which is a commitment of obama and which I have started a new website on in an effort to find who is helping grassroots empowerment on this chalenge http://malaria2015.com -as always I rely on people who know africa to tell me what to put at this web.

(Note we already have 91 congress people calling for making Kenya's jamii bora one of the world's 10 best know knowledge linkers of micro-information http://www.results.org/website/download.asp?id=3650 ; and end malaria deaths by 2015 is a specific goal of obama-)

If university students host microcredit clubs, finding a way to track the 10 microcredit epicentres nominated by these 91 congress people and jamii bora as lead case in africa is absolutely a core case any microcredit club should be handing out to recruit members with

chris http://microafrica.tv

.

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Previously 2008 Highlights of grassroots reporting on malaria

ref PO1

INTRODUCTION
   This the my summary communication thread to the mendenyo yahoogroup on the need
to malaria bed net survey study.
      Malaria causing vectors; Anopheles gambiae, An. funestus and An.
arambiensis are widely distributed in Western region of Kenya. The incidence
of malaria cases is prevalent in children under the age of 5 years, in pregnant
women and HIV/AIDS infected people due to their lower level of malaria immunity
(WHO 2006). In addition, the disease is a cause of poverty and is a major
hindrance to economic development in the region
(Sachs and Malaney,
2002).
Transmission rate and risks of the disease can be controlled by intergrated
approaches to vector control.
ITNs trials have shown effective reduction of  deaths related to malaria  in
sub-Sahara Africa and INTs  thus have become  the major tool in Rolling back
malaria in Kenya. For example, to combat malaria in Western region of Kenya along Lake
Victoria,
ministry of health and  Non_governmental organisations (NGOs_ INTERNATIONAL
MEDICAL
CORPS, CARE KENYA, SHARE KENYA, AKADO WOMEN GROUP KENYA ETC.) have distributed
ITNs for use over  beds to  children under
five years old, HIV/AIDS infected people and pregnant mothers
at substatial
prices of Ksh.50 and free of charge.
     However, misusage of bed nets in the region by fishermen using the bed
nets for fishing and drying fish is of great concern to sustainable malaria
control efforts (Noboro Minakawa et al., 2008). Alternative community
accountancy and transparency survey is to be done for the method to be
effectively implimented to curb the spread of the vector and the disease.
      
         METHOLOGY AND THE OBJECTIVES.
  The study, for example, can be executed in Western Kenya covering for example Mbita
regions and
Mfangano, Rusinga Islands. Questionnaires will be prepared to
capture Community Accountancy, Impact and Transparency in
success  of using impregnated bednets to control malaria.The region has approximately 45,000 adults with over 10, 000 bednets supplied (Distributed Bed nets from 2003_2007). Since it remains un-clear if these bednets have been
indiscriminatively  distributed  to the communities  for reduction in vector
population and malaria cases, a study survey  conducted  would give:
    1: A follow up to the campaign going on with bednets for malaria control.
    2: Collaborative documentation of community evaluations on the use
        of current tools for malaria control.
    3: Collaborative documentation to measure the impact of usage of bed
       in the communities.
    4: Open up collaborative  implimentations to other intergrated methods to control malaria by new programs e.g the
Governments and Non_ governmental organizations.
      
     There has been a high  possibility that, use of bednets alone has not
been contained malaria since reported malaria cases in health centres is extimated at 89% (clinical health report of 2007).On broader aspect, this study would
measure and assess theimpact of malaria control using bed nets. The composition of the questionnaire will involve
ownership of bednets, reason for usage,
household members sleeping under
bednets, frequency of bednet usage, how often are the nets treated, and
extablish time of the night when members take cover in the bednets as well
those who do not sleep under the bednet. It would also cover formal number of malaria cases experienced by the community, how do the community know that one is
suffering from malaria, when one  is sick what do they do_visit clinical
health centres, local health practitioners or aware of malaria symptoms and just buy
drugs from the near drug chemistry shops without medical consultations. Any
night activity of any house hold  member/s. what is their understanding on malaria as a disease.

    Community Accountancy
The data collected to be analysed and the outcome interpreted in the ability
of  the community to help manage vectors and the disease control. As a baseline
survey, the outcome would be a great boost to  researchers in the bednet industry and would reflect whether they are giving the best tool to control malaria or some adjustment is needed to make them  efficient and cost effective. Establish
collaborative and framework links with in the research institutions,
Governments,and  communities for malaria control.
     In principal, Community Accountacy survey embraces value chain analysis
that can be utilized in three different ways. First, is the cost, price and
value as  research expectations flow from one malaria control method to
another.
Secondly, is the cost, price and value as  research is done in different
geographic locations and thirdly is when the cost, price and value of the
research vary over time. The cumulative data collected would generate better
policies to the community for  mosquito control
interventions. In the long run, the assessment is projecting reduction of malaria parasite prevalence and  the resulting mortality and morbidity
in human populations.
     For malaria to fought well, the donor funding communities must change
the funding approach by finding a way to have direct funding to the community
groups like us who are directly affected by malaria disease.
     Otherwise wish you the best, may God bless you.
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PB1
really critical matter to be addresses is the knowledge of key people
in the local community ... and getting the community to become engaged
themselves in helping to get malaria to go away. At the village level,
knowledge about malaria is very limited ... children should learn
useful malaria stuff at school ... and community leaders need to be
given help in getting a malaria program working for their community.

Your info about the flowers that the mosquitoes like versus those they
don't like ... not much good me knowing this ... but good if the
village can use the info. A lot of plants repel insects ... again
useful not as an academic exercise, but good to try out and see
whether this would work for malarial mosquitoes.

Can larvacides like Bti be made locally? Who is going to try this ...
it might work ... it ought to work? It could be a good business making
Bti locally!

Can a local village team be trained to do IRS? Can a friendly (rich)
supporter help them to buy the chemicals they need ... or can they
join a program (maybe from the Health Ministry) that is designed to
support public health initiatives.

With knowledge all sorts of local things could be initiated.

A second theme of the malaria work that is emerging is the idea that
there is a need to upgrade the health infrastructure so that health
interventions are accessible to all