INSECTICIDAL – TREATED NETS FOR SENEGAL

Thiaroye local community counts for 7000 people living in 750 houses, according to a survey made by Senegalese volunteers in September 2010. They are mainly women and children.In January 2011 Ritmi Africani started a campaign to raise funds to donate to Thiaroye 1500 insecticidal – treated nets, before the next rainy season (summer 2011) supported by the ESA HUMANITARIAN RELIEF FUND Club.

Each insecticidal – treated net costs around 5€.  

100 nets – distributed the 6th of January 2011

160 nets – distributed the 26th of April 2011

449 nets – distributed the 21th of July

TOTAL:659 mosquitos nets have been distributed in Thiaroye.

In July some problems raised up regarding:

•         Choice of the families

•         Way of distributing

•         Notice difficulties in sharing the humanist principles beyond this project with the families of Thiaroye

Ritmi Africani together with the Senegalese volunteers decided to choose for a temporary suspension of the nets distributions. At the same time awareness campaign and debats on the importance of the utilisation of the nets and of a separate waste recollection will be held in Thiaroye more frequently. This will allow us to concentrate our effort in long – term and lasting project that aims to self-improvements of the rural communities.

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

THIAROYE

Thiaroye is one of the most populous and poor neighbourhood of Dakar, that lacks of drainage and waste disposal systems. Living conditions at Thiaroye are very hard especially during the raining season: water floods into the houses and any commercial activity stop. Abandoned wastes and stagnant water facilitate the proliferation of mosquitoes and the malaria disease spreading. Besides the continuous appeals of the community to the local Government, very little or nothing has been done to set up a drainage system and/or a waste disposal system. Malaria in Senegal is endemic throughout most of the country and there are annual seasonal peaks in transmission during and shortly after the rainy season. In the year 2008 the WHO World Malaria reported that 23719 people were diagnosed with malaria (3881 were children below 5), 722 died for malaria (306 were children below 5).