On April 25th 2015, people across the globe marked World Malaria Day.

For half the world every day is malaria day – a day to keep up the fight against this killer disease.

Here are some world malaria day facts:

• In 2013, there were 198 million cases, and 584,000 deaths from Malaria
• 3.2 billion (half of the world population) are at risk
• In 2014, 97 countries had on-going malaria transmission
• The global malaria mortality rate was reduced by 47% in 2000 - 13, and an estimated 4.2 million lives were saved as a result of a scale-up of malaria interventions
• US$ 5.1 billion is needed every year, double the funding available
• Malaria costs USD 12 billion per year in direct losses

Malaria is also a common health condition in Londiani and many of our health programmes work to combat it. 

Children in Londiani’s schools learn about malaria through the healthy schools programmes. They learn how to recognise the symptoms, how to prevent getting mosquito bites using nets to sleep under and taking precautions like cleaning up any sources of stagnant water around their schools or homes.

We also support the Ministry of Health to organise field days to take health information to rural communities. Malaria is also discussed as part of our lifeskills programme, where the focus is on learning about the symptoms, prevention, diagnosis and treatment, as well as the risks to pregnant women, children under 5 and older people.

To find out more visit our health programmes page.