2006 - 2009
Tanzania

CRCID funded the Malaria Project for 190,000 Canadian Dollars.

Malaria kills nearly one million African children under 5 years old each year, more than any other single infection. Every day, over 3,000 children die from the disease; those who survive, may suffer from brain damage or paralysis. Insecticide-treated nets are one of the very best ways to protect them against malaria.  Most African countries are receiving free nets from world charitable organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Canadian Red Cross, but Tanzania has a policy of “No Free Nets” and many of their population cannot afford the high price set by their own Government and charged by local retailers.  Through this project Rotary will purchase the nets.

Tanzania has a population of about 38 million, and in 2003, over 11 million cases of Malaria were registered, using 85% of the available health care resources.

This project is far from finished.
Although the project does not receive CRCID funding anymore, the project is still far from finished.
The first distribution trial of only 15,000 nets in August/September 2008 was disaster so a new plan (MOU) was formed for PSI to gather the information from the schools, distribute the nets, hang the nets using their own personnel, tools and equipments, take pictures and get signatures, revisit the schools approximately 60 days after the nets are hung to make sure everything is OK and all of this is at their own expense. Rotarians, from the nearest Rotary clubs to the school will be invited to take part at each distribution. This plan was accepted in June 2009 by the Tanzanian project Co-ordinator Fay Cran. This new plan has taken some time to gather the data and necessary signatures but now the distribution is happening fast. They are now working on distributing 55,000 nets and another 45,000 – 60,000 more to follow. I expect that we will now complete this project early in 2010. Remember, this project distributes some 110,000+ nets to over 250 boarding schools in a jungle country of over 365,000 sq. miles.