A UMNS Report
By Phileas Jusu*

7:00 A.M. EST Sept. 9, 2010

Isata Sesay sleeps in the arms of mother Sarah Turay while waiting to see a doctor in Sierra Leone. The toddler has suffered several malaria attacks in her three years.
Web-only UMNS photos by Phileas Jusu.

Isata Sesay, who will be 3 years old on Sept. 15, has suffered repeated attacks of malaria since birth.

She shivered with fever once again on Aug. 26 upon arrival at the Bo Government Hospital, southern Sierra Leone. Her mother, Sarah Turay, brought her in from the Shemingo community, about four kilometers away.

This is Isata’s third serious malaria infection.

Sarah and Isata were at the hospital last Christmas when Isata fell ill. Victor Sesay, her father, had to donate blood to help her respond to treatment. Her father did the same in August. A motor mechanic driver, he is worried that frequent donation of blood might ruin his own health.

United Methodists are working to help children like Isata. The church is contributing 610,000 bed nets in November as part of a nationwide distribution of 3.1 million insecticide-treated bed nets in Sierra Leone. The nets are intended to reduce transmission and infection rates of malaria, which is a leading cause of death in the country, particularly among pregnant women and children under age 5.

Other collaborating partners in the November campaign include UNICEF, the World Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department For International Development, the World Health Organization, Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Saraj Turay watches over her daughter who is ill with fever from malaria in the Bo Government Hospital.

About 400,000 of the nets contributed by The United Methodist Church will be distributed in the Bo District, where Isata Sesay lives.

Her father is very familiar with the suffering that malaria can inflict. “I have had a lot of malaria attacks throughout my life, especially when I was a boy,” he said. “When infected, I would lose appetite; feel weakness in my joints and feel completely depressed.”

Her two older brothers also catch malaria “but not as often as Isata,” Sesay added.

Like many homes in Bo, the family home is surrounded by swamps — a high-potential breeding ground for mosquitoes that cause malaria. Several other children in the neighborhood are often infected with malaria, requiring their parents to take them to the hospital for treatment, Sarah Turay explained.

The Sesay family has not used bed nets, she said. The United Methodist Church is working to ensure fewer families will find themselves in the Sesay family’s situation.

More information about the Imagine No Malaria campaign of The United Methodist Church can be found here.

*Jusu is a United Methodist communicator based in Sierra Leone.  

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.