Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Residents of Anambra state have expressed joy and gratitude to Malaria partners on the ongoing free distribution of insecticide treated nets (ITN) in their communities.
Anambra state government, in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination programme (NMEP), and Malaria Consortium (MC) with the support from GiveWell Open philanthropic funding on Sunday, 7th August, 2022 began free distribution of about 3.8m treated net through a door-to-door- approach in all Anambra communities.
The exercise kicked-off after several weeks of preparations, advocacy visits, stakeholder’s engagement at all level, investiture of the first lady of the State Her Excellency Lady Nnnoye Soludo as the net Ambassador and a robust flag-off by the Anambra state governor, His Excellency Prof Chukwuma Soludo in Awka, the State capital.
The essence was to involve critical stakeholders who would play vital role to the success of the ITN campaign.
Malaria Consortium and representatives from the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP) arrived Anambra state on July 10 and since then, has held series of meetings, personnel recruitment, adaptation of Information, Education and communication materials to suit State local setting, awareness creation and trainings from the state level to LGAs and wards level.
For the purpose of the free net distribution in Anambra, OrientDaily gathered that over eight thousand indigenes of the State were engaged to support the exercise, including LGA Technical Assistants, Mobilization and distribution team.
Also gathered were town announcers, conveyors, distribution hub supervisors, CSOs and the Campaign Monitoring, among many others and all will be paid.
The trainings were followed up with the movement of the ITNs from state’s central warehouse to the 21 local government areas in accompany of conveyors.
Training of the ITN distribution team was also conducted across wards with the use of technology device to enhance efficiency and accountability, while registering households to issue them free net following the flag off by His Excellency, Prof Chukwuma Soludo at State level.
However, LG council Chairmen replicated same by performing a symbolic net distribution and sleeping inside a net as an indicator that the new net are safe for human use.
When OrientDaily visited some parts of the state, residents were joyful as they expressed their gratitude to the donors. They noted that the distribution came at the right time when mosquito had dealt massively with many households in the state.
We observed some households airing their new nets under a shade for 24hours, some already hanged theirs on their sleeping area while others anxiously waiting to receive as the net distributors were yet to register their household as at the time OrientDaily visited