| The MENTOR Initiative |
The MENTOR Initiative is taking applications for the 15th and 16th international workshops on malaria control in humanitarian crisis - more.... |
The MENTOR Initiative is a unique international NGO, registered in the UK. This specialist group is dedicated to providing essential disease control and technical and operational support in emergencies and recovering crises.
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MENTOR directly assists national and international humanitarian groups and authorities working in the most fragile states to improve the way in which they can respond to crises that befall them.
MENTOR has established and delivers large-scale and effective malaria, and related, disease control directly through to the affected communities and, where possible, utilising the existing health delivery system. The unique operational relief model developed by The MENTOR Initiative has proved highly effective in three core areas:
- Conflict-based crises such as eastern Chad
- Rapidly onset natural disasters such as flooding in eastern Kenya, the Asian tsunami, and the Yogyakarta earthquake
- Recovery stages that follow these crises such as Angola and Liberia
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Fragile states present the greatest challenge to achieving the World Millennium Goals. These states are home to just 14% of the world’s population but these represent the poorest communities on earth who suffer the greatest burden of disease and malnutrition.
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| Fragile states are those most affected by conflict or natural disasters. In sub-Saharan Africa today over 25% of the total population are living in countries severely affected by conflict or population displacement. These countries include the most malaria-endemic regions in the world. Malaria is the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in these countries and constitutes the major part of the patient-load on the health system. |
| Over 30% of the world’s annual malaria deaths occur in these few countries as a direct result of poor access to effective malaria prevention and case management services. Some fragile states in Africa, Asia and South America are increasingly at risk of malaria outbreaks, as well as the gradual re-emergence of malaria and related diseases. This is in part due to global warming and the resultant changes in the world's weather patterns, which is enlarging the environment in which the malaria vector, the anopheles mosquito, can thrive. Natural crises such as the regular flooding in the horn of Africa, the current Asia floods, the tsunami and the recent earthquake in Yogyakarta are dramatic examples of how the malaria burden and risk to highly vulnerable populations can suddenly increase. |
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| New, highly effective malaria control tools and approaches have been developed in recent years and the WHO has made recommendations that malaria endemic countries incorporate these new protocols in their National Malaria Control Programme (or equivalent). |
However, this is far from simple to achieve and requires considerable support from the international community. To establish effective malaria control in these challenging settings demands high levels of co-ordination and standardization across humanitarian agencies and agreement and buy-in from relevant country authorities.
The MENTOR Initiative is dedicated to working with its partners to meet the challenge of malaria control in the most fragile states. |
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Acknowledgements:
The MENTOR Initiative would like to thank the following partners for their funding and/or material support to our work:
British Government - Department for International Development (DFID)
The United States Agency for International Development - Bureau of Global Health (USAID GH)
The United States Agency for International Development - Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID OFDA)
United States Department of State - Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (USDS BPRM)
AmeriCares
World Health Organisation (WHO)
The Global Fund (GF)
AUSAID
Population Services International (PSI)
BASF
World Learning Inc.
Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK)
Sanofi Aventis
Exxon Mobil Corporation |
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