By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone has joined about a dozen other African countries in a continent-wide crusade with the launch of a media coalition against malaria.
The Malaria Media Coalition, launched last Thursday, is meant to boost the country’s effort to meet its commitments to the ‘Zero Malaria Starts With Me’ campaign, a global initiative against the parasitic disease that is responsible for the deaths over 200million people worldwide.
The media coalition is an alliance of members of the Sierra Leone Health Reporters Network (SLHRN), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and Speak Up Africa, a Senegal based advocacy organization.
Thursday’s launching coincided with a one day training of about 60 journalists on reporting on malaria.
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite which is transmitted by the mosquito. Africa bears the brunt of its global burden.
The ‘Zero Malaria Starts Me’ campaign is a Pan-African movement seeking to eliminate the disease on the continent. The movement is co-led by the African Union Commission and the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership to End Malaria.
Sierra Leone in April 2019 became the 12th country, after Rwanda in 2018, to join the ‘Zero Malaria Starts With Me’ campaign.
The other countries that are part of the initiative are Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eswatini and Ghana. Also part of it are Niger, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Mauritania and Senegal.
“Since the turn of the century, we have made great progress in the fight against malaria. The vision of a malaria-free Sierra Leone is now in sight, and the media coalition launched here today is an important step in our journey,” Dr Samuel Juana Smith, Director of Disease Control and Prevention at the MoHS, said in a joint statement announcing the launch of the coalition.
“The Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign is gaining pace in Sierra Leone, and we hope that more countries join the movement to help improve health and prosperity for their citizens,” Smith, who is also the head of the NMCP, added.
Originally launched across Senegal in 2014 by the National Malaria Control Program, with the support of Speak Up Africa and the US-based non-profit, PATH, the ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ campaign aims to ignite a society-wide movement towards malaria elimination. To achieve this, the campaign is designed to mobile a blend of political will, private sector and community engagement strategies that are tailored to meet the unique challenges of the individual member countries.
With support from Speak Up Africa and the other partners, Sierra Leone hopes to leverage the movement to strengthen support from local and national political, religious and traditional leaders, as well as driving private sector support and community engagement across the country in the fight against malaria, which is ranked among the leading causes of death, particularly among children in the country.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest prevalence of malaria, at 41 percent, according to the latest Malaria Indicator Survey 2016 done by the NMCP. The figures show that in 2018, the country recorded 1.7 million cases of the disease, with 1, 949 deaths.
Malaria is one of the leading contributors to maternal and infant deaths in the country, which has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths, at 1,360 deaths per 100, 000 live births, according to the latest available statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Sierra Leone’s National Malaria Control Strategy hopes to slash by 45 percent infections and deaths related to malaria, ahead of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets of zero cases and zero deaths.
Smith said for this to be achieved, all hands must be on deck, stressing the need for a focus on domestic revenue mobilization.
The media, he added, was a crucial partner in this effort.
“The goal is zero deaths,” he said in his keynote address marking the commencement of the journalism training in a hotel in Freetown, citing the need to scale up the use of mosquito treated bed nets and access to treatment, among other interventions.
According to Smith, malaria had become more than a health problem, noting that the contribution of everyone, not just government, was needed. He also said the national malaria response efforts must be tied to the national development strategy.
“We know that reaching zero malaria won’t be easy, but it is possible,” said James Wellan, Programme Officer at Speak Up Africa.
Wellan, who is based in Dakar, flew into Freetown for the launch of the Malaria Media Coalition. He said at the event that the core of the ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ campaign was about engaging all sectors of society and that journalists were vital in this regard.
The Malaria Media Coalition seeks to engage journalists by energising them to report on malaria and take an active role in the Zero Malaria Starts with Me movement, according to a joint statement issued by Speak Up Africa, the NMCP and other partners. It noted that the goal of the coalition also entailed provision of support and sharing resources to aid reporting on malaria, as well as to creating a collaborative platform to drive engagement on the disease.
As part of this effort, a media awards to recognize excellent reporting on malaria was also announced on Thursday. The winners will be announced on April 25, at the official ceremony marking World Malaria in Freetown.
SLHRN coordinator, Swaliho Vandi, a health reporter with the African Young Voices (AYV) Television Empire, said the coalition came in handy in efforts to attaining the goal of the creation of the network, which was to encourage reporting on health issues based on human interests, rather than on events.
“With new knowledge and up-to-date information about malaria and the Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign, as well as a platform to work with and support other journalists, the members of this coalition feel empowered and excited to produce journalism that makes a real impact in the fight against the mosquito’s deadly bite,” Vandi said in a statement.
