Many tropical diseases are caused by mosquitoes: Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever, Zika. Mosquitoes are common near stagnant water and that is a major problem in the girls’ living environment. 

The malaria mosquito bites between sunset and sunrise, while the dengue mosquito bites mainly during the day. That’s delicious!! All girls and their families regularly suffer from one of these diseases. I am often told that the girls cannot go to school because of the high fever. Standing water provides the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. All girls come into contact with standing water. If not in their bathroom, then in the drain next to their house. Or they live next to a stagnant body of water with all kinds of flying scum.

In these cases we use Deet, but they do not know it and if it were available they simply could not afford it. A mosquito net would also help, but that is also prohibitively expensive.

Due to already weak resistance, the girls and their family members are very susceptible to one of the above diseases. This certainly applies to the little ones, babies and toddlers.

I have experienced several times where a mother who has become ill and has contracted malaria or dengue is fired because she is ill and cannot work. Lost your job because you are sick. That’s unbelievable. Sick, lost your job and therefore also lost your income. And then …?