Just in time - treating malaria in Guiledje Guinea Bissau pt 1

I don't know if you remember Guiledje. It is the location of our 2nd It Takes a Village school/clinic.

Guiledje is a Fula village at the crossroads. It is about an hour from Quebo (Quebo is approximately 3 hrs from the capital city of Bissau). There are 5 ethnic groups in the area, which has around 33 villages with approximately 16,000 people.

(click here  for a refresher on Guiledje)

Maritza was in Guiledje last week and sent the following photos and report on conditions. Life is so different there. We have so many luxuries that we take for granted here in the US and so many things we don't have to worry about, like malaria. But malaria is a deadly disease in many parts of the world and I think it is important to show the "faces" of malaria in Guinea Bissau. I will post in 3 parts.

Part 1, Maritza in her own words

This Saturday, it was amazing. 

Finally made it to your school in Guiledje. 

It took us an extra hour, as the road is muddy and full of puddles that seem like small lakes.

This time it was a health outreach. The patients waited on the main road and the minute they saw the car they started walking towards the school.  There were over 100 patients. For me it was a mixture of emotions, glad Raquel and Freddy do such caring things for the poorest of the poor. 

I was in shock to see so many children burning up with fever, with malaria. Many elderly, some could barely walk, the fever and malaria had advanced. One more week in such conditions and they would have surely died.

Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. In 2013 an estimated 198 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 500,000 people died, mostly children in the African Region.

Malaria is the main cause of illness and death in Guinea-Bissau both in adults and children,”  said Jean Dricot, UNICEF Bissau Representative.

Come back for part 2

The Health Brigade