As Evelyn watches the children play at sunset, she feels a deep sense of compassion, recalling how they all came to be under her care. Some were orphaned, others victims of trafficking, or abandoned. Regardless of how they arrived at the children’s home where she works, she loves them as though they were her own and worries constantly about their well-being.
What occasionally keeps her up at night is the incessant buzz of mosquitoes. During the last rainy season, some of the children contracted malaria, and with another rainy season approaching, Evelyn’s anxiety is at an all-time high.
“When the children are sick, it's difficult. We spend a lot of money on medicines and run around caring for them.”- Evelyn Hanson, caregiver, Osudoku Global SOS Home.
Malaria remains a challenge in Ghana, with more than 1.4 million children under five infected in 2023 (Ghana District Health Information Management System). Despite progress in the last decade toward malaria elimination, the disease remains an elusive killer, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Children living in orphanages are susceptible to malaria, and the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP) ensures that these children receive bed nets through the District Health Team.
In 2022, the NMEP requested support from the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project to distribute bed nets to children’s homes as they were not covered by the districts during the mass distribution campaign. With funding from the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), GHSC-PSM distributed 180,200 insecticide-treated nets to 128 children’s homes countrywide, identified by the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana. The project also assisted the NMEP in monitoring the delivery of the nets to the homes and identifying and resolving challenges during distribution.
When you go there right now [the dormitory] and open the louvers, you will find a lot of mosquitoes there, so the nets will really help us.”- Evelyn Hanson, Caregiver, Osudoku Global SOS Home.
Today, thanks to initiatives like this that protect populations disproportionately affected by malaria, children who live in orphanages will be well protected from malaria-carrying mosquito bites at night. The NMEP has included these homes in plans for future mass distribution of nets.
Elimination is possible when no one is left behind.
A child in Osudoku Global SOS safely tucked under a mosquito net. Photo credit GHSC-PSM.
