Central African Republic

Objectives

The MENTOR Initiative began its emergency operations in February 2008 with funding support from the United Nations Foundation. Emergency operations focused on the North West prefectures of Ouham and Ouham Pendé, two of the most populated prefectures and conflict affected areas. This region has all year round intense plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission, and people suffer six or more malaria infections each year. Around one in every five children dies from malaria before reaching their fifth birthday. When this emergency programme began the prefectures were home to 44,165 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ouham and 54,057 IDPs in Ouham Pendé. The IDPs live predominantly in temporary shelter in forest areas and generally suffer greater exposure to mosquito bites and life threatening malaria. The population had no access to malaria prevention services and only an estimate 10% had access to health services supported by Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the main towns of Paoua, Bocaranga and Markounda. In these few health facilities malaria is responsible for over 60% of patients seeking treatment. The absence of an effective national health infrastructure in this region has lead the loss of countless lives and encouraged extensive use of ineffective and unaffordable malaria treatments purchased in local markets.