"How To Move A Bed Net”
“Nothing like this going on in the world right now” – Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, U.S. Malaria Coordinator, speaking at the press conference for the launch of the Malaria Campaign, Bamako, Mali
At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I had no idea what it took or how many people were involved in making this kind of event come together. Yes 2.3 million nets is a significant amount yet somehow I hadn’t entertained logistically how the nets would be distributed.
So what does it take to make this happen? Here are some of the numbers: Mali is the size of California and Tennessee put together. It’s also a landlocked country so the nets had to be brought in from the port in Dakar, Senegal. The nets were transported in 55 40-foot containers. They took a week to get to Mali and then they were distributed by road and rail. It was a challenge to transport to all of the centers and the longest time it took was 12 days. Keeping in mind that some areas were flooded, there were broken bridges to cross and axils to fix and it’s amazing that logistically the nets got to the sites in time.
With determination the nets were distributed by truck, motorcycle and canoe to the various health sites, villages and other community centers throughout Mali. It took 2, 500 Malian Red Cross volunteers and an additional 13, 000 volunteers to make things happen. These dedicated volunteers went door to door in order to get the word out to the various communities. And what totally blew my mind was that even the most remote of villages was made accessible by scooter or canoe. No one was to be left out.
On December 13, the campaign officially kicked off and I was standing only a few feet away the President of the country. How crazy is that? Anyway, in his speech President Amadou Toumani Toure stressed the importance of good health for his country. He was well received by mainly a crowd of young children and mothers. A band kept the celebratory atmosphere alive. Malaria is nothing to celebrate but the fact that these families were receiving essential services including a bed net which had been economically unattainable, this was reason enough to celebrate. Basically the atmosphere was filled with a national pride that was contagious.
At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I had no idea what it took or how many people were involved in making this kind of event come together. Yes 2.3 million nets is a significant amount yet somehow I hadn’t entertained logistically how the nets would be distributed.
So what does it take to make this happen? Here are some of the numbers: Mali is the size of California and Tennessee put together. It’s also a landlocked country so the nets had to be brought in from the port in Dakar, Senegal. The nets were transported in 55 40-foot containers. They took a week to get to Mali and then they were distributed by road and rail. It was a challenge to transport to all of the centers and the longest time it took was 12 days. Keeping in mind that some areas were flooded, there were broken bridges to cross and axils to fix and it’s amazing that logistically the nets got to the sites in time.
With determination the nets were distributed by truck, motorcycle and canoe to the various health sites, villages and other community centers throughout Mali. It took 2, 500 Malian Red Cross volunteers and an additional 13, 000 volunteers to make things happen. These dedicated volunteers went door to door in order to get the word out to the various communities. And what totally blew my mind was that even the most remote of villages was made accessible by scooter or canoe. No one was to be left out.
On December 13, the campaign officially kicked off and I was standing only a few feet away the President of the country. How crazy is that? Anyway, in his speech President Amadou Toumani Toure stressed the importance of good health for his country. He was well received by mainly a crowd of young children and mothers. A band kept the celebratory atmosphere alive. Malaria is nothing to celebrate but the fact that these families were receiving essential services including a bed net which had been economically unattainable, this was reason enough to celebrate. Basically the atmosphere was filled with a national pride that was contagious.
posted by nam at 4:04 AM
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