African Abraham church through its bishop, Alfred Elliot Phiri who is also a member of Kasungu District Inter-faith Association Committee (DIAC) has embarked on implementing activities which aim at raising awareness on malaria prevention and control through the Zero Malaria Starts With Me Campaign.

Bishop Phiri further explained that it has been long since this country started the battle against malaria yet it is still claiming a lot of lives.

‘Malaria has taken lives of many more than HIV and COVID-19 is. Therefore, it should be everyone’s responsibility to take an initiative to end the battle. The government alone cannot manage if its citizen do not take part, it should be an inclusive battle. Everyone, irrespective of age should take part’ Phiri said.

Phiri further revealed that, sleeping under treated mosquito all year round is not enough, however, every citizen should adhere to all preventive measures so that the zero malaria goal be achieve even before 2030.

‘We cannot just rely on mosquito nets alone because we only use them when we are sleeping but mosquitos do bite anytime, which is why we need to take every initiative so we win the battle. As a church, we are going around helping the physically challenged clearing their surrounding so that all mosquito bleeding cites be destroyed’, He said.

Esther Mwale 56 of Chilanga village, one of the project beneficiaries confirmed that clearing the surrounding and destroying mosquito bleeding dumps is of great importance to the fight against malaria.

‘Even if we used to sleep under treated mosquito nets, still we could suffer from malaria because mosquitos were everywhere and could bite us even before we go to be. There is a need control mosquito bite by destroying their bleeding cites. Since the church helped us clear our surrounding, mosquito bites have been lessened, hopefully if the whole community can do this, we will surely get rid of all mosquitos hence create a zero malaria community’ Mwale explained.

Talking on one of the guiding themes during the awareness; ‘COVID-19 prevention starts with me’, Public Relations Officer for Kasungu District Hospital, Catherine Yoweri, urged people to get vaccinated and observe all COVID-19 preventive measures.

‘As we are facing a new variant of Corona virus, let us observe all preventive measures not forgetting the vaccine. We have not yet been vaccinated, the vaccine is in all health centres let us make our decision and get the jab, if we took the first jab and we were waiting for the second jab for those who took AstraZeneca, let us go get the last jab so we have complete dosage’ said Yoweri

Parent and Child health Initiative (PACHI) is engaging religious leaders in making sure zero malaria goal is achieved to create malaria free country. The awareness sessions covered zero malaria starts with me, covid-19 prevention starts with me and ending Gender-Based Violence starts with me campaigns.