On World Malaria Day, April 25, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is continuing its work to reduce the numbers of people infected and killed by malaria every year worldwide. In Mozambique, a country ravaged by this deadly disease, ADRA is working to change the attitudes and behaviours of more than a million people through the power of community mobilization.

Despite the recent successes in the battle against malaria in Africa, the numbers of deaths attributed to this disease in Mozambique remain high, with an estimated 7.4 million people contracting the disease in that country alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report for 2008. Of that number 19,000 died. Approximately 15,000 of those were children under the age of five.

To reach community-level organizations, the Inter-Religious Program Against Malaria (PIRCOM) and ADRA Mozambique launched Together Against Malaria (TAM) in 2007, a project aimed at empowering these organizations to motivate their local communities to actively fight against malaria.

“The faith communities in Mozambique have the power to motivate their constituencies in this fight, giving the national programs greater effectiveness on the ground level,” said Lynn Boyd, country director for ADRA Mozambique.

PIRCOM leaders have organized faith communities at provincial, district and local levels into smaller committees, training them to deliver five key malaria prevention and treatment messages, including consistent use of insecticide-treated nets, immediate care for sick, fever-ridden children, medicine and hospital visits for new mothers, the importance of eliminating stagnant water, and the value of cooperating with local house fumigation campaigns.

According to the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA), an organization that works to improve the capacity of faith communities to reduce malaria, TAM trained 4,000 local faith leaders in the first year, who in turn spoke to nearly 350,000 of their own congregants. Since then, TAM has reached more than 675,000 additional people.

“To date, TAM has surpassed our expected goals, and has great potential for replication anywhere in the world, as it readily adapts to local needs,” said Boyd. “Faith communities are universally pervasive, motivated and underutilized.”

TAM also initiated a net distribution pilot program in the province of Zambezia, providing 20,000 nets for those most vulnerable to malaria.

The project is funded by the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for nearly US$2 million, and will reach more than 1.5 million Mozambicans by its completion in 2010. The project is managed by ADRA Mozambique, and implemented by PIRCOM, with the technical support provided by the Washington National Cathedral.

According to a recent report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, (IFRC), the preventive use of mosquito nets increases significantly when volunteers visit communities to promote net usage, showing the important role that community volunteers play in reducing malaria.

TAM is the largest interfaith initiative against malaria, and represents a vital partnership between ADRA, PIRCOM, the Washington National Cathedral’s Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, the Mozambique Ministry of Health, and the United States government.

April 25 was originally declared Africa Malaria Day in 2000, but in 2008, World Malaria Day was also launched on April 25 to commemorate the work done around the world to control the deadly disease.