END AMLARIA NOW -
Global Grant #2123404 is designed to eliminate malaria and thereby protect all 8,000 people who live in the area from getting malaria. The elimination of malaria will also protect the tens of thousands of tourists who visit the area every year. We will attempt an intervention in the mines if this turns out to be possible given the security situation. Recent feasibility studies for the elimination of malaria in the world have concluded that the countries of the Americas have the greatest potential for the elimination of malaria. The elimination of malaria is important due to the high social and economic cost that malaria represents. Malaria has also been shown to affect the cognitive development of children who have it.
 
Malaria represents a severe public health problem in the rural areas designated as UNOPI 8 by the Colombian Ministry of Health in Buenaventura, Colombia. The project aims to eliminate malaria in UNOPI 8. The focus will be on the most vulnerable villages of Zaragoza (plus nearby illegal mining zone), Córdoba (including San Cipriano & Santa Helena), Triana, Cisneros, La Defina & La Bocana. The area also includes small, scattered communities, often displaced indigenous people with living in extreme poverty and no medical services.
Malaria is a disease of poverty. It is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Its impact is especially ferocious on the poorest: those least able to afford preventive measures and medical treatment. And yet, malaria is entirely preventable through an integrated package of interventions, such as properly maintained insecticide-treated bed-nets, indoor residual spraying, rapid & accurate diagnosis and treatment, and most import to sustainability, education campaigns for both adults & children. The program for adults will use material developed by PAHO (see email) and  the Red Cross as per the MOU. The children's project is designed by Rotarian Rossi Brit. Core curriculum material will come form PAHO
 
This Project will create a training and certification program for local microscopistas (technician trained to diagnose diseases, particularly malaria, using a microscope), in partnership with the Santiago de Cali University, and with Dra Josefina Lopez, a Bacteriologist at the Buenaventura Hospital. covering the care and use of microscopes to bolster the diagnostic capacity of the entire region. Quick accurate diagnosis of malaria is a key to elimination. The project will purchase microscopes for villages that lack them and will pay for cleaning and repair of microscopes currently in place.
Map of Colombia
End Malaria Now
WHO - Malaria Fact Sheet
Project Sponsors
Rotary Club of Key Biscayne , District 6990
 
Club Rotario Cali - San Fernando, District 4281 
END MALARIA NOW - UNOPI 8 Buenaventura, Colombia is being designed as a pilot project and is being developed with the cooperation and support of the WHO / Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), The Ministry of Health of Colombia and The District Secretary of Health of Buenaventura.
 
The Rotarians intend to learn from this project and forge alliances with government health department leaders then apply their successful strategies and new alliances to eliminate malaria in all of Colombia in a subsequent Global Grant.