World Vision Mosquito Nets Save Lives in Mozambique

In Mozambique, endemic Malaria is responsible for 30% of hospital deaths, 60% of hospitalized children and 40% of outpatient consultations. Poor communities are now fighting back with support from World Vision in the form of life saving mosquito nets.

April 13, 2009—Eleven-year-old Lonica has been closer to death than many girls her age in Lifidzi village, in the central province of Tete. On two consecutive occasions she had to be hospitalized for urgent treatment due to malaria – one of Mozambique’s main killer diseases. That was, however, before she received a mosquito net.

Lonica's father, Jamiti Came, is a visibly relieved man. When asked about malaria, he said: “I received two mosquito nets in September 2008. From then, none of my children had gone to hospital because of malaria, and it was so frequent to take them there.”

Lónica tells her story: “I started going to school very late because I usually got sick and my parents did not know what it was. They took me to [the] hospital and there the nurse told us that it was malaria.” Lonica looks around and then longingly at her mum. “I was in-patient, twice at the post health. My mother was crying, because if were not me at the hospital were my brothers who were in the hospital… Life was very difficult for my mother.”

So, what has changed since then? “Dad sets up for us the mosquito net every night and all of us, my two brothers and two sisters, sleep under it very peacefully! No more mosquito bites. Good riddance, malaria!”

Then, like any other 11-year-old girl, she does what she likes doing best when not in school. She goes and plays with her friends, grateful for the life-saving mosquito net she has at home.

(story by field Communicator Claudina Lembe)

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. We serve the world’s poor regardless of a person’s religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press