World Malaria Day

As the world marks World Malaria Day, the UN reports a 60% drop in malarial mortality rates.

The United Nations has reported that there has been a 60% reduction in malarial mortality rates over the past 15 years. 2015 saw 214 million cases of malaria being reported which resulted in 438,000 deaths, many of these in Africa. it is estimated that almost 1.1 million lives were lost to malaria in the year 2000. However, the United Nations warns that over 3 billion of the world’s population are still at risk.

The OLA Sisters have been helping with the fight against malaria in Africa for many years. A central part of the OLA mission is to provide health care services in areas where such services are lacking. Mobile clinics also operate in rural areas which enable the OLAs to bring the benefits of basic healthcare to some of the remotest locations where no such services exist.

Sr. Marian Hankard, OLA spent many years working on the mobiles clinics in rural areas of Ghana and Nigeria. As a nurse with specializations in tropical nursing and haematology, Sr. Marian was very aware of the threat of malaria and felt her training made a difference. “We saved lots of lives during while in those rural areas with the mobiles clinics”.

Sr. Marian also referred to the great sacrifice that early missionaries made in their quest to share the light of the Gospel with the wider world: “Malaria has been fighting missionaries for a long time”.  Many early missionaries went to Africa with the knowledge that they may not live for more than a few years due to diseases such as malaria.

More information:

Click here to read about the OLA healthcare mission.

Click here to visit the official Malaria Day website.