Press Release

Rotary Clubs win a £175,000 grant for malaria project in Tanzania

23 April 2007

The Rotary Clubs of The Island & Royal Manor of Portland in the UK and Arusha in Tanzania  have been awarded a 3H Grant from the Rotary Foundation worth in total £175,000  to support the Rotarians Eliminating Malaria in Tanzania (REMIT) project.
This grant matches funds raised by Rotary Clubs in Great Britain and Ireland.
This project has already received two Matching Grants worth, in total, £140.000 and, in the areas where these Grants have been implemented, the morbidity and mortality from malaria have dropped by 50%.

This new Grant will be used to purchase a further 115,300 nets.  If the net is used to protect one person, it means that 115,300 people will be saved, but usually the nets are placed over several children each night. This new 3H Grant will do much more than simply provide nets.  It will also purchase insecticide, set up laboratory facilities, teach trainers and technicians to diagnose malaria more quickly and accurately, hire transport, and so much more.
This project is  a major partnership between the local communities, the Rotarians in Tanzania and the Rotarians in the Great Britain and Ireland. The Tanzanian Government has also come on board and is helping Rotary in the fight. Malaria is the biggest single cause of death in Tanzania and one quarter of all childhood deaths there are due to this disease.
Keith Barnard Jones of Rotary Club The Island & Royal Manor of Portland said
“We are now liaising very closely with the local health officials to get the figures for morbidity and mortality reviewed on a regular basis (probably quarterly) to check on progress.  We will obtain statistics on the number of hospital admissions and hospital deaths, as well as statistics from the local authorities regarding the number of cases in the community and the number of deaths, as well as information on associated morbidity. Each year we expect to see a marked drop in the incidence of malaria.  We can quantify this improvement very easily, and can compare the results with those from areas not involved in the project.  As we move into other areas  we can then quantify our results and compare them with those from the areas we have already completed, and the areas where we have not yet started
As more villagers in the surrounding areas hear of the success of the scheme, they too wish to be involved. This is already happening following the implementation of the recent Matching Grants.”

REMIT was started in 2003 by Brian Stoyel, Past President Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, to raise funds for equipment, education and research. Malaria is one of the biggest killers in the world today. At least 300 million people contract malaria every year, of whom over one million children will die and approximately 90% of these deaths will be in Africa.