By Rob Mather, Against Malaria Foundation Founder & CEO
In May, AMF reached a total raised of US$200,000,000 since our founding and the donation that took us past that milestone was one from New York, USA! This equates to the funding of more than 91 million nets to protect 165 million people, with an expected impact of averting more than 30 million cases of malaria and 65,000 deaths. We also recently passed 439,000 donations received, coming from over 121,485 people in 187 countries!
As always, our sincere thanks to everyone for their support and generosity which is both humbling and thrilling. Humbling, given the repeated support of donors and the magnitude of some of the donations, and thrilling in knowing what these donations can achieve.
How are those donations being put to use? Here’s a short update on AMF’s recent in-country activities which will give you an idea of the work we are able to carry out.
In DRC, the registration of 500,000 households in Équateur province is complete and the paper records have been sent to Kinshasa where the household information has been entered into AMF’s database by our partner AGAPE. The data was entered by 170 data entry clerks, organised in three shifts, over a three-week period. Distribution of 1.5 million nets due to take place in early October. Registration in Sud Ubangi province of 600,000 households will take place at the end of September using electronic devices, and in Haut Katanga of 1.4 million households at the beginning of October.
In Zambia, our partner CHAZ has just finished a round of post-distribution monitoring (PDM) activities in Central province and they are now entering into AMF’s database the data collected from approximately 4,000 households. Data from the North-Western province PDM have been entered and show sleeping space coverage of 72%, 14 months post distribution. The next PDM in Western province took place at the end of August.
In Ghana, our partner World Vision is collecting data for the second PDM in Upper East region. The results of the first PDM in Brong Ahafo region are currently being imported into AMF’s database. 3.6 million nets were distributed in 2018.
In Malawi, our partner the Red Cross has started PDM activity in Southern region. Data is being collected using smartphones from 17,000 households. 4.3 million nets were distributed in 2018.
In Guinea, the last wave of our distribution, of 940,000 nets, took place in the prefectures of Siguiri and Kankan. Our partner organisation, United Purpose, monitored the distribution at a number of distribution sites which were randomly selected by AMF. Monitoring data was collected on electronic devices providing AMF with real-time access to the information. This completes the distribution of 4.8 million AMF-funded nets. Distribution data for the final wave is being entered into AMF’s database by our partner Cabinet Diagnostic.
In Uganda, the 24-month PDM, i.e. monitoring that takes place 24 months after the distribution of nets in the respective districts, is continuing. Sleeping space coverage at 24 months (partial results) is 84%. 12.7 million nets were distributed in 2017/8.
In Papua New Guinea, the rolling distribution of nets continues (year round activity, province by province) and PDM data has been collected in the provinces of Chimbu, Western Highlands and Eastern Highlands. The data is currently being entered into AMF’s database for review. In 2019, a total of 1.0 million nets will be distributed.
In Togo, the 24-month PDM will take place in September. 2.4 million nets were distributed in 2018.
You can keep up to date with our work via monthly updates here.
