BENIN CITY – Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO), as part of efforts to commemorate the 2015 World Malaria Day, recently focused on strategies towards eradicating the malaria scourge, which it asserts, accounts for 30 percent of death among children less than 5 years, and high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria.
Welcoming guests to the event which drew participants from the traditional circles, academia, civil society groups, LAPO clients, Medical field, LAPO’s Executive Director, Sabina Idowu-Osehobo asserted that LAPO which is irrevocably committed to poverty alleviation, since inception in 1987, decided to mark the day under the theme, “Invest In the Future: Defeat Malaria” inorder to raise awareness on the threat posed by malaria in Nigeria, as well as bridge funding challenges required for malaria control.
While acknowledging efforts of the Nigerian government and other Roll Back Malaria Partners since the past 10 years towards ensuring that malaria is brought under control, the LAPO Executive Director said between 2001 and 2013, more than 4.2 million lives were saved as a result of a scale up of interventions.
“We at LAPO are glad to have contributed to this progress in Nigeria through malaria prevention and education programmes, free malaria tests, advocacy, and referral services. Our community-based malaria interventions have saved the lives of beneficiaries, reduced school absenteeism, alleviated poverty as well as improved maternal and child health in target communities”, she explained.
While noting that Nigeria may obviously not be able to attain the WHO target of 75 percent reduction in malaria cases and deaths by end of 2015, she called on countries and stakeholders to focus and target available resources at places where the burden of malaria is highest and at people and groups who face the highest risk as the world awaits the development of a malaria vaccine.
Highpoint of the event was a lecture delivered by Dr. Otas Obarisiagbon on behalf of Dr. Omokhoa Adeleye on strategies for eradicating malaria, followed by an interactive session which featured questions and answers on malaria prevention, treatment and control.
