Notes from the Field: Peace Corp Volunteer Takes on Malaria Prevention in Madagascar

Notes from the Field: Peace Corp Volunteer Takes on Malaria Prevention in Madagascar

Tyler Bradford, a Peace Corp Volunteer, gave light to communities in rural Madagascar, while helping with malaria prevention strategies there.
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Tyler Bradford is a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar, living and working in the SAVA region in the northeast of the country. During the last several months, one of his primary projects has been working on a malaria prevention project. He partnered with local community health workers to survey and sensitize the community about bed net usage.

Woman holding baby and light in Madagascar.Bed nets are a proven and effective way to prevent malaria and are especially critical in a country where treatment can be difficult to access. The project includes constructing the first ever map of the community, surveying all households in the village on bed net usage, and conducting behavior change activities to increase the proportion of the community protected by bed nets. The driving force of this project's implementation has been the community health workers, and so, upon completion of the mapping and surveying phase, each community health worker received a LuminAID light.

In the village he stayed in, there is no electricity and most night time activities are conducted by candlelight or battery-powered lights. To have a compact and rechargeable light source such as LuminAID was tremendous for these eight community health workers and their families! Not only do they now have a consistent light source, but they also save costs on replacing candles and batteries, which can quickly become expensive.