Adrienne Long, a Peace Corps Master’s International student at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, has been teaching people in her Peace Corps village in Mozambique to prevent malaria infections. She has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique since May 2011.
“Malaria prevention is important because malaria is the number one killer of children under 5! Parents, especially mothers, need to realize the vitality of bringing their children to a health center when they develop a fever,” said Long.
April 25 marks World Malaria Day, and Long and thousands of other Peace Corps volunteers across Africa are working with local people, NGOs, and the president\'s Malaria Initiative to eradicate the disease. On World Malaria Day in 2011, Peace Corps launched Stomping Out Malaria in Africa, an initiative to mobilize more than 3,000 Peace Corps volunteers across the continent to make a significant, timely, and lasting impact in malaria prevention.
Peace Corps volunteers are able to educate people in some of the most remote areas of the world to prevent malaria and build skills that will allow them to keep their communities free of malarial mortality far into the future. From teaching families about the importance of sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets, to educating expectant mothers about preventive treatments to ensure a healthy birth, Peace Corps volunteers provide people with the knowledge and tools to stay free of malaria. (Read a recent press release about Peace Corps’ malaria prevention work here and visit a Peace Corps volunteer created Web site about malaria prevention here).