Malaria No More is partnering with Youssou N'Dour, Senegal's most popular singer and biggest media owner, to launch a groundbreaking malaria education and advocacy campaign in Senegal which we call Senegal Surround Sound. Our aim? To create a culture of bed net usage and malaria treatment by mobilizing the best local marketers from the worlds of entertainment, sport, faith, and business.
Who Am I?
I'm Martin, Malaria No More's Program Director for Senegal Surround Sound. Contact me: martin.edlund@malarianomore.org or +221776735683 in Dakar
Xeex Sibirru: Download Free Youssou NDour Mp3's!
Get the new malaria awareness song by Youssou NDour!
Main Version (feat. Yossou NDour, Viviane, Pape Diouf, Souleymane Faye, & Ndeye Marie Gawlo)
Yesterday marked the kickoff of Phase 2 of Senegal Surround Sound’s Xeex Sibbiru (Fight Malaria) campaign! The day included a press conference and launching of the Xeex Sibbiru Song Contest, in which local musicians will have the chance to write and perform their own songs to raise awareness about malaria. Now begins the search for Senegal’s best songwriters and performers.
Nearly 80 members of the press showed up to cover the event, which indicates the momentum behind the campaign to eliminate malaria deaths in Senegal! Check out this video to see how the day went. (The background music is the Xeex Sibbiru campaign song, featuring some of Senegal’s biggest pop stars: Youssou Ndour, Viviane, Souleymane Faye, Pape Diouf, and Ndeye Marie Gawlo.)
In this video, PCV Lauren Canton’s friend explains one of the reasons malaria is so problematic for people in Senegal: some people take over-the-counter medicines that simply mask the symptoms but don’t actually cure the disease. They think they’re better but then the symptoms return, and by then it can be too late.
This brings us to a related issue: even when people go to local health centers or hospitals and receive prescription medications, they too often fail to take the full course that is prescribed. For example, the drug might require that a malaria-infected person take four pills per day for four days. But if someone does not complete the dose — stops after three days, let’s say – the disease can strike back and be even more difficult to cure. This can also lead to evolving strains of malaria that become “drug-resistant.” These strains do not respond to treatment even with traditional drugs, which therefore makes the disease gravely difficult to treat.
Spread the word,
Adam Horowitz
Peace Corps Volunteer
The Gambia ‘07-’09, Senegal ‘09-Present
Yesterday, Youssou released a “Special End of Year 2009 Album.” We walked through the big open-air downtown market in Dakar and heard it blaring out shops and being sold on street corners.
How does this relate to malaria? Every (non-pirated) copy came complete with a flyer in the sleeve with information on “Artistes Contre Le Palu” (”Artists Against Malaria”). That’s music to our ears.
One of the key components of any effective malaria campaign is follow-up. You can’t simply hand someone a mosquito net, check them off your list as another prevented case of malaria, and pat yourself on the back for a job-well-done. The only time mosquito nets help to prevent malaria and save lives is when people actually use them! That’s why Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) can be so useful during malaria campaigns; they live in communities, learn local languages, and build relationships with people. This puts them in the best position to promote proper bed net usage and to follow up with individual families.
Marisa Van Osdale is one of the PCVs with a Malaria No More FlipCam. She has been documenting malaria related activities in her region of Matam in Northern Senegal, and here she shares a video of a family receiving mosquito nets and pledging to use them every night. But, as she explains below, it’s important to remind people to use the nets through subsequent visits.
And by the way, I’m Adam Horowitz, a 3rd year Peace Corps Volunteer here in Dakar. I was a Health and Community Development volunteer in The Gambia for two years and recently transferred to Senegal and extended my service for a year. Among other things, I’ll be acting as the new point person for PCVs with MNM’s FlipCams, so you should be hearing a lot more from me – and other volunteers – in the near future!
Enjoy,
Adam
Marisa writes:
“Although Northern Senegal’s climate is mostly dry, during the rainy season, malaria becomes a real concern, threatening the health of families. In my village of Goudoude Diobe, one family is shown turning in the coupon to receive two lifesaving mosquito nets. The distribution of nets is just the beginning. As development workers, we must continue the campaign by completing follow-up with families to ensure the success of the project and use of the nets.”
At the Xeex Sibbiru office, we have been reading a study that shows that malaria is at its worst here in Senegal at the end of the rainy season, between now and mid November, when the waters stagnate and mosquitoes are out in force. It’s a lesson I learned all too well this week.
On Tuesday night, when I went home after work, I had a headache. It quickly escalated: I vomited all through the night. I couldn’t sleep. The next day I was miserable. I had no appetite. Recognizing the symptoms, I rushed out to get a rapid test at a tiny clinic downtown. It cost almost $20, but I had to find out if I had Paludisme.
Sure enough: by the time my test came back positive, my temperature was up to 101 degrees Fahrenheit. They made me a prescription for Coartem. By noon, I was able to eat something and so I took my first dose, along with some paracetamol to manage the fever and some Vitamin C to replace what I had lost.
It took two more days before I felt well enough to get back to work. Anyway, I’m glad to be back and fighting malaria in Senegal, rather than fighting it myself at home. To make sure this doesn’t happen again, I got a new moustiquaire impregnee. And you can bet I’ll be sleeping under it every night.
–Andrea Gbedeko [Translated from French by Martin}
Faith saturates life here in Senegal. Prayer calls issue from local mosques and hum through the city morning and night. The names of the holy centers and religious brotherhoods decorate taxis and buses. Graffiti images of Senegal’s most famous Sufi Saint, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, adorn walls and signs everywhere you look.
The “Xeex Sibbiru” campaign is celebrating its first Ramadan (the month-long season of fasting and prayer that celebrates when the first few verses of the Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad) by visiting the major Muslim Brotherhoods, or Confreries, to get their blessing and engage them in the malaria education campaign.
It has been a truly once in a life-time experience… and we hope a life-saving one for the people who will learn about malaria as a result. Below are pictures of Youssou, Bouba, and me visiting the most revered Khalifes and Marabouts in Senegal, all of whom pledged to activate their extensive national networks to get the word out about malaria:
Yoff (Layenes)
Youssou presents a bed net to El Hadji Abdoulaye Thiaw Laye, the Khalife General of the Layenes
Government health worker Aminata Ndieye discusses Senegal’s national integrated bednet campaign as it rolls in the village of Gourmel. Footage captured by Lauren Canton; translated from its original French version into English.
With her MNM FlipCam, Lauren Canton has been documenting how mosquito nets are being distributed and making a difference in the village where she is living called Podor. Located in the Northern St. Louis region of Senegal, Podor is right along the Senegal River near the border of Mauritania.
Check out this first film where Lauren guides us through the processes of the local distribution!
In this next video, Lauren observes as a national health worker distributes Vitamin A and deworming medicines to an infant. Following this, the mother is given mosquito net vouchers for her family. This integrative approach brings more life-saving health interventions at once to people in rural areas of Senegal.
