Khaki-clad, easy-smiling and clearly familiar with the potholed road we are currently negotiating in rural Mozambique, Francois Maartens says words to me that resonate for days: “I’ve spent the last 16 years of my life doing malaria prevention work across the continent; I can’t imagine doing anything else. I love what I do, I’m paid to do it, and I sleep well at night. What more could I ask for?”
Francois is the man on the ground for Goodbye Malaria, an initiative working to eliminate malaria on the African continent through a targeted indoor residual spraying programme. Its pilot project, operating in the Boane district of Maputo province in southern Mozambique, has seen 36 000 homes sprayed with World Health Organisation-approved insecticide since November 2013, with 100 000 lives saved as a result.
In an effort to fund its lifesaving efforts on the ground, Goodbye Malaria is selling super-beautiful shweshwe pyjama pants, which Flow PR has the privilege of promoting.
“Malaria can be eradicated in our lifetime,” says Robert Brozin, founder of Goodbye Malaria and Nando’s. “What an incredible opportunity this presents for us to revolutionise the ways in which we solve one of Africa’s biggest public health problems.”
In order to better understand the work that Goodbye Malaria is doing on the ground, I recently spent three days in Mozambique with the Goodbye Malaria and Nando’s teams. This PERi-PERi adventure explored the origins of Nando’s, from its values – pride, passion, courage, family and integrity – to its signature peri-peri flavour.
Together with acquiring a deeper understanding of an organisation that lives and breathes the energy with which it infuses its delectable chicken, I learnt an enormous amount about malaria, the devastation it causes – about 627 000 people die of malaria every year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and 90% of them children under the age of five – and the ways in which Goodbye Malaria is seeking to make a difference.
Our small visiting team had the opportunity to experience first-hand what Goodbye Malaria’s sprayers go through as they travel from village to village, spraying each home and educating local communities about malaria. Testing our skills on the so-called “wall of pain”, we donned our protective gear, including masks and face shields, shouldered our impossibly heavy tanks, and set to work.
Within minutes, a thin layer of sweat covered our bodies, our backs ached and groans of discomfort became audible. Spraying is halted in winter, which means that, despite the fact that the temperature was climbing to a cosy 28 degrees, what we were experiencing was nothing compared to the wrath of Mozambique in all its mid-summer glory.
Protecting people from malaria, I have learnt, is strenuous and difficult work – but perhaps the most important work always is.
Our spraying exercise was followed by a visit to a remote orphanage with which Brozin and the intrepid adventurer and Goodbye Malaria ambassador, Kingsley Holgate, have a long-standing relationship. There we distributed mosquito nets to replace those that had begun to deteriorate.
Like Francois, I have found that playing a small role in such a worthwhile initiative is helping me sleep well at night, too. And of course, this ties in precisely with the whole philosophy behind Goodbye Malaria’s pyjama pants. By purchasing a pair – 50% of the proceeds of which go to the efforts I witnessed on the ground – you are helping to save a life in your sleep. Of course, the pants are awesome enough to be worn all the time, too.
For more information, and to buy a pair of pants, visit Goodbye Malaria’s website or check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
