Amplifying the Effort to End Malaria Through Partnerships

Grassroot Soccer is proud to work with various partners around the world to use soccer as a tool to help end malaria. Did you know that through our partner programs, GRS has provided comprehensive malaria education to over 77,000 young people? With support from ExxonMobil Foundation, implementing partners in Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Tanzania are creating change in their communities; concurrently, through our partnership with the US Peace Corps, we are teaming up to reach youth in rural areas with malaria education.

With April 25th marking World Malaria Day 2016, here’s a glimpse into how some of our partner programs have been commemorating this week:

Youth Empowerment and Development Initiative – YEDI (Nigeria)

 

 

For World Malaria Day, YEDI held a clean-up / environmental sanitation event themed Clean-up to End Malaria in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State, with the support of Lagos Waste Management Authority. The clean-up exercise was run in the morning, after which the clinic was open for community residents to get tested for malaria and access other available complimentary services. The mini clinic was hosted by mission 5000plus, Social for Family Health and Africare, and provided long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINS) and demonstrated their proper use while community football teams (under 17) engaged in fair-play tournaments alongside the mini clinic. YEDI aimed to reach 1500 people through these activities.

 

Learning the lifecycle of a mosquito.

IDYDC held a malaria awareness and testing event at the JMK Youth Park. Youth soccer teams participated in a tournament, two nurses were present to conduct malaria testing, and IDYDC coaches and staff, along with staff from Childbirth Survival International, educated attendees on malaria prevention and treatment.

Special Olympics Nigeria will host a World Malaria Day event on May 7th. This will include a Family Health Forum (where people with intellectual disabilities can receive health services such as dental, vision, and hearing exams, for free), malaria testing and treatment, and a soccer tournament for people with intellectual disabilities.

Biriaelat has and will be doing the following as part of their World Malaria Day campaign: conducting 8 SKILLZ Malaria interventions during the 2 weeks leading up World Malaria Day, reaching a minimum of 240 participants; holding a football tournament between the participants from the 8 interventions, on Sat April 23rd; distributing mosquito nets to community members and participants; conducting a communications campaign about malaria awareness (television and radio); and testing and provide treatment for malaria.