25 April 2012
Role model: Fatimah Ibrahim and baby Humaida. Picture: Daniel Peters / Malaria Consortium
Fatimah Ibrahim is a 30-year-old mother of four who has brought her youngest, six-month-old Humaida, with her to a bustling health centre in Minna, the state capital of Niger State, Nigeria.
“I’ve come to collect my supply of drugs,” she smiles. But the ACTs (Artemisinin Combination Therapy, used to treat malaria) she is fetching aren’t needed by Fatimah or her little daughter. Fatimah is a community caregiver – a volunteer who gives basic malaria treatment to under-fives and advises on its prevention. It’s a very important task in her rural area.
“The parents keep bringing their children. Sometimes I see 10 people a day,” she says.
Malaria is endemic across Nigeria: almost the entire population is at risk. And an attack of malaria is a very serious risk for pregnant women and children under-five. Nearly 30% of childhood deaths – around 250,000 a year - and 10% of maternal deaths are caused by malaria.
Nigeria’s Support to National Malaria Programme (SuNMap) is a multi-partner project funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development and managed by Malaria Consortium. SuNMap is a five-year programme whose objective is to implement a comprehensive approach to malaria control. One of the many ways it does this is by supporting and funding the training of community care givers, such as Fatimah.
There are a dozen other women at this mother and baby clinic. Some have brought their infants to be immunised; others are having their own blood pressure taken. A range of medical treatment and malaria prevention advice is available too.
But women and babies who live in rural communities don’t always have access to this prevention or treatment, which is where Fatimah comes in. She lives in the rural area of Gada, some half hour’s drive from Minna. Her catchment area covers apopulation several thousand strong.
Fatimah became acommunity caregiver in 2011. The message went out for people in her area, preferably women, who could at least read and write, to come for training. The local traditional chief knew she had received some schooling and advised her husband that she put herself forward.As a result, Fatimah learned how to spot, and treat, malaria in under-fives, as well as malaria prevention information that she could share with members of her community.
“It is very important that their parents should bring the children as soon as they spot signs of fever, and after that make sure they take the medicine correctly,” she says.
Fatimah can treat the majority of her small patients straight away. “If the drugs are taken according to instructions, most of the time children won’t need to be referred to a health facility. I ask the parents to come back and tell me whether the baby has got better or not. If I treat once, and they still have fever, then I do refer them.
She has many satisfied customers. “I see many people who say: ‘when my baby had a fever, you treated her and she got better’. Then they recommend me to others. This saves a lot of money and many hours work for the health facility.”
Fatimah believes that the rate of malaria is going down in her area too.
“I tell other people in the community about how to take care of the environment to prevent mosquitoes. For instance, don’t allow stagnant water to gather. And when you use dishes and cutlery you should wash them immediately, not leave them in water to soak.”
Her valuable role is appreciated by all the families she has been able to help.
“I get so many thanks from the people I have treated. Their prayers and blessings give me motivation to keep going on,” she says with a quiet smile.