Malaria can be deadly. The real tragedy is it's preventable and treatable.
Transmitted by mosquitoes, malaria can be prevented by using insecticide-treated mosquito nets. UNICEF reports only 72% of Tanzanian children use these nets and only half of all children with fever symptoms are being treated for malaria. Malaria is the number one reason why our staff, girls, and students miss work and school throughout the year.
JBFC is changing that.
Not only are we working with the Tanzanian government to make sure our girls have mosquito nets and are sleeping under them, our clinic is now able to test for and treat malaria, so children won't have to suffer needlessly.
JBFC’s Clinic has seen more than 300 patients, since it opened in late 2014. The clinic serves our residential girls, students, and staff members. Currently, our clinic primarily treats cuts and minor ailments. Our campus nurse, Paskazia, also does a number of referrals every week for more serious illnesses, including malaria.
Now instead of hoping our students and families follow our nurse's advice and see a doctor, they can get the test right in their community.When caught early malaria is manageable. If it goes untreated, malaria can be deadly, particularly for children. With JBFC's Clinic now able to not only identify malaria cases, but also treat our staff and girls, we will be able to make substantial gains in our community's health.
You can read more about JBFC's Clinic and what we're doing to improve our community's health in the latest issue of JBFC's quarterly newsletter, Habari, which will be hitting mailboxes in mid-June.
