Patience shows the newly installed latrine

Patience Makasiato and her neighbor show off the “SanPlat” or sanitation platform they constructed with the help of community health worker Patricia Chimaliro.  One of the jobs of VillageReach community health workers is to teach villages how to cast and install SanPlats for pit latrines. These SanPlats are a key component of long-lasting latrines that do not collapse during the rainy season, helping to decrease diarrheal diseases and cholera for children and adults throughout the village.  Patricia works with three villages – Sitima, Kasonya and Chipumi – to educate residents on water and sanitation issues, including training villagers on how to create their own safe and long-lasting latrines.  Having a dedicated community health worker like Patricia helping in the community gives Patience the skills and resources she needs to help decrease diarrhea diseases in her village.

Thank you to Anil, Rupali and Tom for supporting an entire month of a community health worker salary!

Edward and his grandmother receive a bednet

Dear David,

Madalitso is 16 years old and lives with his grandmother Sigere in Piyasi village in Malawi. Madalitso is almost finished with primary school. Thanks to a donation from David, Madalitso and his family now have the safety of a malaria preventing bed net.  Thank you for your support!

Emily with her new net

Dear Pam,

Emily is 6 years old. She lives with her family in the village of Piyasi in Malawi. Her father passed away, but her mother works in the neighboring fields to provide for them and to keep Emily in school.

Up until now the family has been sleeping without the protection of bed nets, but thanks to Pam, they won’t need to risk another night without one!

Adam and his grandmother receive bed nets

16 year old Adam lives with his grandmother, Evelyn, and 4 of her grandchildren in Piyasi, Malawi, each of them having lost their parents. Despite the challenges he has faced, Adam is still in school. Thanks to a donation from Pradeep, Adam and his family will now have protection from malaria with these bed nets!

Macson treats Atito and her daughter with Oral Re-hydration Salts

Atito’s daughter had diarrhea and was in serious need of ORS (oral re-hydration salts) to treat the illness. For help, she went to Macson, the health surveillance assistant located in her village in Malawi. His supply of ORS was gone due to a shortage in the region, so he told Atito and her daughter to wait while he biked to a clinic 14km away to pick up more. Thanks to Macson, Atito’s daughter received treatment she would have otherwise gone dangerously without.

This is one example of the life saving assistance Macson provides his village on a daily basis. A donation from Laurie has supported one month of Macson’s salary, enabling him to continue this work.

Agness and her family receive bed nets

Agness works very hard to support her family.  Her daughter Mercy and her grand-daughter Blessings both live with her as well as her niece Patricia. The women have a small farm that they grow their food on and Agness sells the extra food at the nearby market.

She doesn’t bring home much earnings and hasn’t been able to buy mosquito nets for her family. All of the women sleep without the protection of a bed net. Blessings is only 3 years old but she has already had malaria a number of times.

Fortunately for Agness and her family, Anne, Josh, Josiah and Isaiah has donated mosquito nets for the entire family. Now they can sleep safely under the nets and be protected from malaria carrying mosquitoes.

Gladys Kaselo delivers care at a village clinic

Gladys Kaselo is a Health Surveillance Assistant with VillageReach in Sitima village in Malawi. Sitima has a population of about 850 people and it is very rural and difficult to get to. To get to the large health center, it takes about three hours by foot, so when Gladys opened a village clinic in Sitima, the villagers were very happy.

She holds clinic twice a week for children under five to get regular check-ups and treatment when they are sick. One day, Ester brought her daughter to see Gladys. Ester’s daughter had been suffering from a fever and Gladys diagnosed her with malaria.

Gladys was able to give Ester medicine for her daughter and show her how to smash it up and mix it with water for her to drink. Ester’s daughter fortunately recovered.

Thanks to the generous donation from Anne, Josh, Josiah and Isaiah, Gladys is able to keep operating her village clinic in the village of Sitima for another month.

Baby Benjamin receives care from an HSA, Mackson

Joyce lives in Malawi and is a new mother to her son Benjamin. She knows that it is important to take her son to a health provider so that he can grow up healthy.  She lives about 17 kilometers from the nearest health center and must travel there by foot.  Because of the long distance, she is not able to take Benjamin in very often for routine appointments such as immunizations or basic check-ups.

Fortunately, Mackson Khalawako, a Health Surveillance Assistant with VillageReach, has opened a village clinic nearby for children under five years of age. She can now take Benjamin to see Mackson for all of Benjamin’s recommended routine care and in case he becomes ill.

Thanks to the generous donation from Scott, Mackson can continue to keep patients such as Benjamin healthy at his village clinic for an entire month.

Edmond receives his bed net

Edmond and his two younger brothers love to play soccer with other children in his village. After a long day in classes, they play in the field near their school.

At night, Edmond and his younger brothers don’t sleep under bed nets and often get sick with malaria. When that happens, they have difficulty with their studies and they don’t have the energy to play soccer.

Thanks to the generous donation by Neil Patel, Edmond and his brothers now have long lasting insecticide treated nets to sleep under, protecting them from malaria carrying mosquitoes. Now they are safe from malaria and can spend their energy on more important things such as school and soccer!

Family receives bed nets for their two children

Charles and his wife Ruth live with their daughter Ellen and her two children.  Ellen’s two children Gift and Linosi are 10 years and 7 years old. Both children attend primary school nearby. Unfortunately, the family does not own any mosquito bed nets to sleep under, so during the rainy season nearly everyone in the family gets sick with malaria at least once.

When they are ill, Charles and Ruth are unable to attend to their crops, Ellen is unable to cook for her children and parents, and both Gift and Linosi have trouble with their studies and attending school.  Thanks to the generous gift from Neil, every member of the family now has a long lasting insecticide treated net to sleep under protecting them from malaria carrying mosquitoes.