MAP News: 2008 - MAP Blessed with Resources to Serve in 115 Countries
Thursday, January 29, 2009
By: Jack Morse

Through our many programs that provide live-saving medicines, health education, clean water technology and other total health solutions, MAP has touched the lives of more children and families than ever before.

In 2008, MAP International was blessed with the resources to serve poor, hurting or displaced people in 115 countries across the globe. Through our many programs that provide live-saving medicines, health education, clean water technology and other total health solutions, MAP has touched the lives of more children and families than ever before. This includes the provision of more than $458 million in medicine and supplies, an all-time high.

As we begin a New Year, we would like to take this opportunity to share some of our recent success stories.

Cote d'Ivoire

A young girl carries water she has drawn from a watering hole near her village in northern Cote d’Ivoire. Guinea worm quickly spreads through contaminated water, making wells, pumps and purification filters essential for its complete eradication.

Buruli ulcer control

MAP International, through its Cote d’Ivoire office and partner agencies, is combating Buruli ulcer based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global strategies and goals. The disease, which is almost unknown in the West, affects people in impoverished rural areas around the world, particularly in West Africa. It is the third most common mycobacterial infection in the world after tuberculosis and leprosy. Buruli ulcer destroys skin and underlying tissues and, without early treatment, it may lead to permanent deformities and disabilities. It often strikes children between the ages of 2 and 15 and, according to the WHO, it may very well replace leprosy as a “social scourge.”

Through close connections with Buruli ulcer treatment teams throughout West Africa, MAP has helped to build a model program that is being introduced throughout the region. Containers of medicines and surgical supplies needed to combat the disease are being provided to hospitals and clinics on a regular basis. In addition, MAP is helping to reduce the occurrence and impact of this devastating condition by providing education and clean water technology.

Drinking Water Supply Improvement

Cote d’Ivoire is on track to eradicate Guinea worm infestation in its population. By World Health Organization standards, a country must be free of a disease or infection for three years before it can be declared free of risk from the disease. By 2010, the country should be able to achieve this important health goal. However, eradication is only possible through consistent improvement of the country’s drinking water supply. MAP is working with community-based water management committees to improve clean water supplies and to teach Ivorians about the link between clean water and parasitic disease control, such as Guinea worm, diarrhea and typhoid fever.

Uganda

Help for Displaced Persons

MAP International received a $1 million grant from Irish Aid, the Irish government’s department of assistance for developing countries, and The Leprosy Mission Ireland, a nonprofit organization and MAP partner based in Dublin. MAP is using the grant to augment our healthcare programs in both Cote d’Ivoire and Uganda.

In Uganda, MAP is using the funding to serve more than 50,000 people, many of whom still live in camps for people displaced by the years-long fighting. Other Ugandans are returning home to communities ravaged by war. Through clinics, MAP is providing basic healthcare along with efforts to reduce the prevalence of malaria, including distributing insecticide-treated bed nets.

Kenya

Integrated health and livelihood project in Esonorua

MAP is beginning year three of a five-year project to reduce poverty and improve health in this region of Kenya by integrating healthcare with agricultural and environmental practices, such as the use of biogas and clean water technologies and the rehabilitation of homes. The project targets about 4,400 inhabitants of Esonorua and its surrounding area with the goal of preventing diseases, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, trachoma and other water-related diseases by providing bed nets, repellents and water tanks.

Since the beginning of the project two years ago, MAP has significantly reduced malaria infections in the area by distributing insecticide-treated bed nets to hundreds of households. MAP has also constructed latrines to improve sanitation, provided water tanks and conducted health and hygiene education for school students and the community.

Bolivia

Health Promoters

By working with indigenous groups to identify community leaders and train them in MAP’s comprehensive Community Health curriculum, MAP has developed a health training program for impoverished communities. These health promoters help increase access to basic healthcare for tropical diseases such as diarrhea, dengue fever, respiratory infections and malaria. In turn, they become change agents within their communities, working to improve sanitation, hygiene and access to safe water sources, all of which will help to prevent disease.

Over the past two years, MAP has trained nearly 200 health promoters from 90 Ecuadorian communities, from the slums of Quito to the villages of the Amazon jungle. The training program has been certified by the Ministry of Health of Ecuador, giving these healthcare volunteers tremendous credibility in their communities.

These MAP programs and many more like them are only possible because of the generosity of our donors. As we begin 2009, won’t you renew your commitment to bring hope and health to the world’s poorest people?