As part of BAMM (Blog About Malaria Month)
I will be featuring brief interviews with my coworkers at Stop Malaria Project
(SMP) and Malaria Consortium (MC) in the Soroti office.
Note: SMP is implemented by MC, which
provides technical assistance to the project.
Ruth
Enyimu is a behavior change communication assistant at SMP.
A: Where are you from?
R: I’m from
Kaberamaido.
A: What did you study?
R: My first paper was a diploma in secondary education. My bachelor’s
degree is in adult and community education from Kyambogo University in
Kampala. I am now going for my master’s
degree at Mukono Christian University in public health.
A: Where have you worked
before SMP/MC?
R: I first worked with World Vision in the children’s department where
we looked at the beneficiary child, its family, health and education. I worked there for about four months as a
volunteer. My second job was with Save
the Children. I was supposed to work in Sudan in a rebel camp. After the training, I remained working
online. But when the time came to go to
Sudan, the rebels went to Central Republic of Africa. I held my appointment for about 5 months, and
then went to AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation). There, I was a project assistant for Malaria,
HIV/AIDS and Water and Sanitation.
A: Why did you want to
work for SMP/MC?
R: The project I was working for in AMREF came to an end. One thing that excited me about SMP was that
I already had experience. It’s all about
behavior change, not just treatment. That’s why I applied for that
position. I felt like if the community
takes on the responsibility of prevention, there’ll be no cases in the
facility. I wanted to continue the work
I had started with AMREF to work with VHTs (Village Health Teams). This was an
opportunity to create sustainability for both projects.
A: What drew you to work
in public health?
R: Most of the health issues are
preventable diseases. But they are
ignored; people don’t have knowledge. I
believe public health will give me a lot of insight into community health. I believe that will really help me change the
lives of the community; but with their help, I can’t do it alone. Generally, I don’t like to be
office-based. I really want to be deep
down with the local person who has a problem.
Public health will directly take me there.
A: What do you like most
about your job?
R: It really makes interact
with the local person. I get to interact
with different people. Without SMP I wouldn’t have met you. I’ve got to meet and train many Peace Corps Volunteers.
A: What do you think is
the biggest challenge in malaria eradication?
R: It’s the attitude of people and the allocation of resources. There are more resources for treatment
instead of believing that prevention can succeed. There is also a knowledge gap
of the local person.
A: What do you think could
be improved in the malaria eradication campaign?
R: The sensitization that we are doing is broad; we think the same
sensitization will work in every region. It should be zeroed in what the community
needs. For example, if I was in charge
of nets, very few would be allocated to regions where the burden isn’t
high. Areas with a high burden should be
focused on. Small community and village
groups like SACCOs (Savings and Credit Co-operatives) should be taught the benefits of health and changes will
occur. Most of our sensitization is
radio based and not every person will interpret what they hear on the radio. Our IEC (Information Education Communication)
materials for each region (holds up a poster) should show have real photograph
of an actual family in the community that everyone knows. These are just cartoons. But with a real photograph, people would think
“even I could do this.” The health
education in the facilities should focus on individuals or households, and should
be followed up. No one bothers to make
follow- ups to see what the problem is from the grassroots. Instead, they wait
until they go to the facility. Like
other outreaches are done, with immunization and TB programs, why not do
outreaches for malaria treatment and testing?
A: After SMP ends, what
would you like to do?
R: I would really still wish to work with another organization that
is handling malaria issues. It’s a big
burden for the country.
A: Can
you share a memorable experience from working at SMP?
R: We had a radio talk show
which I initiated brining a local person, a couple who went for IPTP (Intermittent
Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy) for four doses, and got treatment within 24
hours. I realized that was very
educational, but very brief. When you
bring in a local person, you get many callers, and educate others on the real
experience. Another morning, I decided
to listen to the radio. One of the LC3
(local councilor) from Kaberamaido discussed how people were using (bed) nets
for fishing. So, I got the driver and
decided to go up there. I saw nets in
the swamp used for fishing. I fear
water, so I couldn’t remove them. And I
knew that if I removed them, it wouldn’t help.
So I got the community together and asked them to be sincere and march to
the water to remove it. I said, “Let’s
go and remove them and we’ll talk.” The only
one that remained was because the owner isn’t there, but he refuses. I said, “this one doesn’t have an owner, he
doesn’t want to use it, and doesn’t think it’s important”. We removed it, and had a meeting and gave them
proper education on net use. I asked them
“how much does this fish cost?” A kilo
of the tiny fish was 2000. “How much do
you spend on treating malaria in your household?” They said at least
20,000. I told them “let’s put this in a
weighing scale”. I used a stone to
represent the cost of treatment and the other side was sleeping under a
net. We agreed that we should all we be
watchmen, and signed an agreement that if someone uses a net for fishing, they
would be arrested. And today, there is
no fishing with (bed) nets. They realized that if you misuse something you
are given for free, then you lose it.
Stop Malaria Project Uganda is one of many organizations
that host a Peace Corps Volunteer in partnership with the Stomping Out Malaria
Initiative in Africa. The initiative mobilizes and connects over 3,000 Peace
Corps Volunteers in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to work together to
eradicate malaria from the continent. To learn more, please visit: http://stompoutmalaria.org/.
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