Malaria in Schools

Malaria is endemic in many parts of rural Uganda.  It is a mosquito borne disease that affects everyone, including the children. They develop headaches, high fever and sickness that sometimes leads to lasting damage or death.  Typically, a child who develops malaria will miss around 10-15 days of school and will return to the classroom lethargic and debilitated. In rural Uganda, clinics are few and far between, often difficult and expensive to reach, so children are often not treated until they are severely ill.

 Rose Charities has developed an innovative and simple program to reduce malaria among school children. We train the teachers to identify children who are showing the early symptoms of malaria, and then the teacher will test the child, using a WHO early diagnostic test kit. If the test is positive the teacher will immediately begin the treatment for malaria and follow up to ensure the treatment is completed.  By catching the disease early, most children recover very fast and often only miss a day or two before returning to school. 

 We also conduct malaria awareness and prevention sessions in the school and community, and ensure all students sleep under mosquito nets. The results of this program have shown a significant reduction in malaria cases in both the schools and the community and a big reduction in the number of school days missed. This is a simple inexpensive way to combat Malaria and we hope to be able to see this program adopted throughout the country

 Testing and treatment of a child with malaria costs just $4.  Please donate to help us reach more school