On the 24th day of February, 2013, the team of Okiero Anthony Okoro Development Foundation with the support of the Staff and Students of Peace River North School District No. 60 Canada carried out a drama presentation on Malaria prevention and treatment with the use of ACT at the Market Square of Ughoton Community in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria.
RATIONAL OF THE DRAMA:
The Malaria Drama presentation was to educate the community members on the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Malaria. The area was chosen because of the swampy nature and mosquitoes breed in these area and Malaria is one of the illness prevalent in the area.
- Malaria has become a leading killer disease in most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive
- 60% of family health expenses is spent on Malaria treatment.
- About 300,000 people die yearly from the attack of Malaria.
- For every 10 children that die of all sickness, 3 of them are caused by Malaria.
- Malaria is dangerous to pregnant women and their unborn children.
Based on the above premise we then chose to inform the Ughoton Community of the dangers of Malaria through Drama presentation. The drama script was very comprehensive and covers all the various areas that the community people need to know to enable them take action if they are diagnosis of Malaria found in them.
The drama presentation is made up of the mother of a child who fell ill when the parents were not available and was rushed to the Health Centre in the area and the Nurse discovered that the child was suffering from Malaria and treatment with ACT was administered. They were also told to keep their environment clean to avoid the breeding of mosquitoes. They were also told that not all mosquitoes carries the Malaria parasite but the female mosquitoes call Anopheles’ are the ones that carry Malaria parasite. The Health Centres are the only places where people can go for treatment and that people should not administer treatment on themselves without a recognised Medical Officer. The pregnant women were advised to always register themselves for Ante-natal early to have the complete does of Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT).
SUCCESS STORY:
The Drama presentation reach out to so many community members who were in the Market Square comprising of Female, Male and Children. The team of Okiero Anthony Okoro Development Foundation as distributed some mosquitoes nets (LLINs) Long Lasting Insecticides Treated Nets to some members of the community. We also carried out free Malaria test with our diagnosis testing kits and those found to have Malaria parasite were advised to go to the Health Centre for treatment. The community members were happy and thanked the Staff and Students of Peace River North School District No. 60 Canada for their generosity and choosing their community as a pilot scheme. They prayed that God will bless you all for this kind gesture and replenish your purse from where the funds were derived.