Rwanda’s religious organizations members of RICH have got a formula to encourage community members to effectively explore options meant to prevent malaria infections.
A couple of months ago, Rwanda Interfaith Council on Health (RICH) convened a meeting of religious leaders in Southern Province.
With a total of 296 participants who are religious leaders greatly appreciated the training which opened their eyes to understand malaria issue at hand and how they can contribute to the battle against it.
“I used to hear people doubting the efficacy and use of indoor residual spraying but didn’t have any facts that I can use to convince the community. Thanks to the training provided by RICH, I have enough knowledge about the functioning and impact of exercise,” says Pastor Ntakirutimana Vincent from Ruhango district.
Religious leaders pledged to package information on malaria prevention mostly highlighting elimination of the mosquito breeding sites and seeking early treatment (in the first 24 hours) when presenting symptoms of Malaria.
The trained religious leaders advocated for this program to reach more members since it would help reach a much bigger audience with insurance of message penetration.
Trainings of such a caliber are courtesy of Global Fund through the Rwanda Biomedical center. RICH is implementing this sensitization project in the Southern province.
This project aims at improving the understanding of the community members and ensuring that they have correct and consistent practices and behaviors towards malaria control interventions as per the 5th objective of the Malaria National Strategic Plan 2020-2024.