Malaria and Africa by Dr Stephanie Jones

Dr Stephanie Jones is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Dandenong Hospital. Dr Jones held senior positions from 2004-2010 working in many of the world’s most disadvantaged developing countries. Of her 7 year overseas experience, Dr Jones spent 2 years working in Africa with Malaria Control Programs. This is her story.

I worked for over 2 years as a doctor in areas of Africa where malaria is hyper-endemic; that is almost everyone in that area will get malaria at least once, at some time in their life. Most people get malaria when they are a baby and at their most vulnerable in terms of development and survival. 

I worked at a hospital that had the best medical facilities in the region, supported by a mining company. During the rainy season our hospital beds would be full of babies receiving medicine for malaria and for the complications of malaria. Severe malaria can affect the brain causing coma and seizures, it can break down red blood cells causing jaundice (yellow eyes) and anaemia. It causes high fevers, body pain, kidney and liver problems, inappropriate bleeding and often death, even in a hospital as well supported as the hospital I was working.

In the local medical facilities where they don’t have the right drugs to treat malaria or give blood transfusions or to provide the life-saving support that we were able to, and in the villages where the people had no access to medical centres, babies and young children die every day from malaria.

I looked after a 3-year old boy who had very severe malaria. He was in our hospital for 4 weeks, near death and it was only the good luck that his parents had in being able to access our clinic and the tireless efforts of the nurses that allowed him to survive. I met him some weeks after he was discharged from hospital and he had not yet fully recovered from malaria’s effect on his developing brain. He may be permanently disabled. He may not be able to get an education, a job or a family. He is alive.

My other role was working with local and international staff in implementing Vector Control Programs to reduce the number of mosquitoes and the opportunity for mosquitoes to spread malaria in communities affected by large-scale gold and copper mining. Trying to prevent malaria is very complex and requires action at all stages of the malaria life cycle. The parasite causing malaria is spread from person to person only by Anopheles mosquitoes, which bite people from dusk to dawn.

In rural Africa, extended families live together in mud brick houses with thatched roofs with no windows and no screens; they have no electricity, no air conditioning, and cooking is often done around a kerosene stove in the open air. The rainy season fills puddles, latrine pits and outdoor sewers with water in which the mosquitoes breed. The families have no protection from the mosquitoes which can bite dozens of people in one night spreading malaria continuously through communities.

The team I worked with was trying to reduce the number of mosquitoes and provide some protection to the people in the villages. To reduce mosquito numbers the team would go into all the houses in the villages and spray toxic chemicals on the walls that would kill mosquitoes on contact. They would also help the communities to reduce breeding sites for the mosquito by putting biological control measures into stagnant water and cleaning up as much standing water as possible. The team would also distribute bed nets to families. Each family would get 2 bed nets; up to 6 people might have to sleep under one net. If the family were so poor that they were unable to feed themselves, they might take the net and sell it or use it as a fishing net in order to have food.

The people most at risk of malaria have no jobs, no money, little education, and many other serious threats to their survival. Even though people in these areas have had recurrent episodes of malaria and lived and died with it every day they don’t understand what causes it and how to protect themselves. We worked with schools and in the communities giving education and testing and treating school children who were infected with malaria.

By providing education, mosquito control and bed nets we hope that people can participate in protecting themselves, by staying covered when the mosquitoes are biting, using bed nets, reducing mosquito breeding sites around their houses, recognising the symptoms of malaria and going to a good medical facility to get the right diagnosis and the right treatment when they get sick. Our program also worked with the local medical facilities, training the doctors and nurses, giving them microscopes so that they could diagnose malaria, and helping them to keep stocks of effective malaria treatment. 

A bed net is a small but very effective protection in the big fight against malaria. Every little contribution to preventing malaria will save a life.

Poverty in Vemasse, East Timor by Allan Clausen

MONASH FRIENDS OF VEMASSE

East Timor (Timor Leste) is the poorest country in our region and one of the world's poorest. However, this poverty is not "in your face" - you don't see people lying around looking at death's door. In fact this is rare anywhere except in times of extreme famine. 

In 2005, a group of Monash residents and other interested people began meeting with the goal to raise fund to help residents living in Vemasse, a village situated about 90km east of Dili in East Timor. In 2007 we were fortunate to discover Alex Gusmao from Vemasse who was studying Community Development in Melbourne. Alex helped the community in Vemasse to establish a committee, which determines their priorities for us to help with.

In December 2008 Monash City Council voted to formalize the relationship with the Vemasse Sub-District and to provide some support to Friends of Vemasse. In May 2008 four of our committee members, who financed their own trip to visit Vemasse. This is our story.

POVERTY IN EAST TIMOR

Portugal was the colonial power for some 400 years in East Timor. They were the first and last of the European colonial powers and probably the worst in that they did little for the local people - they were there purely to exploit.  When a revolution in Portugal in 1974 overthrew the dictatorship, the Portuguese quickly abandoned their colonies. Subsequently, Indonesia became the new colonial power.

Indonesian colonialism was marked by ruthless suppression of opposition.  However, Indonesia, unlike the Portuguese, did do a lot to develop the country, in particular building roads, providing electricity and developing an education system.  However, before and after a vote in 1999 showed overwhelming support for independence, there was intimidation and much killing by the local militias who supported integration with Indonesia. As the Indonesians left they took with them whatever they could and destroyed whatever they couldn't.  Buildings and equipment were destroyed, power lines removed and virtually all of the Indonesian schoolteachers departed.

The result was that this newly independent country began in 1999 with huge problems - power poles with no transmission lines, destroyed power generators, burnt out school and other public buildings and few teachers etc.

Malnutrition can be seen in the distended bellies of children. Every year there is a two month food shortage but a few years ago there was a period of severe drought which extended that period each year. The overdependence on staples of sago and rice means diets are unbalanced.

VISITING VEMASSE

Vemasse is a Sub-District of the District of Baucau in East Timor. The Vemasse Committee has been using the money we raised to support two schools, which received no government funding and most of the teachers depended on small school fees from parents. Although it is intended that schooling be compulsory for all children up to year nine, it is was apparent in some of the remote villages that there were children of primary school age who were not at school, seemingly because of lack of buildings & teachers. Some school buildings have been repaired or rebuilt but many bear the scars of the Indonesian departure. 

Three years ago four of our group visited Vemasse. The committee was embarrassed to tell us that all of the money we had sent to date, including smaller amounts for two other projects, had been used to support the unpaid teachers. The reason for this was a drought had set in so that few parents could then pay the school fees either in cash or in kind. So our money was helping to keep the teachers alive.

During our visit, we also noticed how basic the school buildings are in Vemasse. The schools are often with unlined walls & ceilings and have just openings for windows.  Stationery & equipment are also scarce. We observed children doing exams on scraps of paper.

This made us realize how desperate and difficult the situation is on the ground. Thus, supporting the livelihood of the teachers and schools has remained our first priority. In addition, we have also been providing funding for other purposes and shipped school supplies and furniture to Vemasse. Currently we have a proposal before us to fund urgent repairs to the junior secondary school in the hills.  We are happy to have Wheelers Hill Lions joining with us in this new venture.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

Our trip to Vemasse in 2008 was a very fruitful experience, which has given us some understanding of their situation and seeing their response. Although facing many problems, the East Timorese are happy people. They may be way down the list in the poverty stakes but their happy and welcoming nature simply shines through.

From Allan Clausen, President of Monash Friends of Vemasse

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~vemasse/help.html

Humanity Grows from Adversity by Malcolm Brownlee

Humanity grows from adversity, and the poverty which exists in Third World Countries is beyond the comprehension of we who have grown up un such a privileged environment and we have difficulty in coming to grips with the real needs.

In 1992 the Rotary Club of Oakleigh became aware of a school in Papua New Guinea, which was attended by 850 students, but had no supply of fresh running water, whatsoever.  The students were required to walk 5 kms on a daily basis to collect water for cooking and all washing and ablutions were done in the nearby ocean.

I went as part of a team of 4 Rotarians to build a water reticulation system to collect, store and distribute fresh water for the school.  On arrival we realised that there was ample collection facilities with iron roofs on major buildings, but no spoutings or drain pipes to collect the run off, or tanks to store it.  The school was about to close because of failing facility, and there was no other local option for education.

We set about building a series of concrete tanks, but soon learned that the local youth were quite capable, with proper training, of building their own system under supervision.

Working on the principle “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish he will eat forever” we set about training two teams of local National Youths to build the system.

By the time we left, three months later, the young men had completed 5 x 40,000 gallon concrete tanks, and the collection system which enabled the school to operate and grow.

I returned several years later to see the school thriving, and to learn that several of those young men had set up their own business building water systems, and were still doing so.  I believe they are still doing so, quite successfully, today.

 

We Want Yours Stories!!!

Do you know that one child dies of malaria every 45 seconds in Africa and more than 1 million people die from Malaria each year? Transmitted by mosquito bites, malaria is a preventable diseases. Unfortunately, countries affected by malaria are usually too poor to do anything about it. The social impact of malaria is ignificant; it accounts for USD$12 billion every year in health care costs and loss in productivity.

Proudly supported by the Monash City Council, JCI (Junior Chamber International) Whitehorse Maroondah is joining the United Nations Foundation to raise awareness across the globe about the dire situation. We are committed to work towards eradicating extreme poverty and malaria.

Residents and communities are invited to join the Cultural Scene Investigation (CSI) Journal Club and collect personal stories from those who have been affected by malaria and extreme poverty. Stories collected may be used as part of a community art exhibition and 2012 art/calendar production.

To submit your stories or for more information, email jciwh2010@gmail.com.