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“Come on and spray!”
MSF and health authorities need months to prepare for each spraying campaign. First, they need to choose which insecticide to use, as they must be rotated to avoid mosquitoes developing resistance. Then, they need to spread the word among local communities and encourage their participation, plan logistics, recruit and train teams…
“There are more than 68,000 households scattered across the hills in Kinyinya,” Dr. Mboma continued. “For this approach to be effective, you need to reach at least 85 percent of the households. It requires tremendous organizational skills and energy.”
“It was especially important to make sure residents were fully informed and complied with the project because it was a technology they did not understand,” Dr. Mboma continued. “So it was important to work closely with the local government and employ many community workers to answer all their questions.”
Jeanine Arakaza, supervisor of one of the 78 spraying crews deployed in September 2020, agrees.
“Last year was the first time we sprayed here, and obviously there were a lot of questions,” Arakaza said. “We held a lot of information sessions, and in the end we were able to successfully spray 95 percent of the houses.”
“This year, everyone is convinced. People saw the impact of the last campaign,” she continued. “They followed us and said: ‘Come and spray our homes, we need you, we don’t want malaria in our homes!’ It’s really encouraging and we hope to do better than last year.”
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