Earlier this year, the Global Fund awarded a grant totalling $9.78 (£7.5) million to support the LSDI2 spraying programme. Mark Eldon-Edington, Division Head for Global Fund Management, says “We are proud to support this partnership, which is the first of its size and could be a model for future collaboration in the fight against malaria.” The Global Fund’s grant is important because it’s the first to connect the global malaria community with the local government and combine private sector expertise.
The grant is wonderful news, but in order to carry out spraying across the whole region, we also need to raise a further $4 (£3.1) million from the private sector (which is where Nando’s Fighting Malaria has an important role to play). If we can achieve this goal, it will mean that new systems and innovations can be introduced to the fight, and will enable the programme to employ more people extend our work into new areas.
Over the last three years, the LSDI2 spraying programme has protected 330,000 people across three districts. In that time, the prevalence of malaria in the Boane district of Maputo province has decreased from 13.75% to just 1%, which is an incredible result.
The real heroes are the sprayers – who walk non-stop under the beaming sun with heavy equipment, going door-to-door explaining to families why it’s important to let them spray the indoor walls of their homes. Across the 2015/2016 spray season, the programme employed 400 sprayers.
Over the next three years, with the help of Global Fund’s grant and private sector funding such as Nando’s Fighting Malaria, we hope to employ 1400 people which will enable us to carry out spraying across the whole region and protect over a million people from malaria for three years.
Talk about impact!