Project Update: Health Team Distributes Nets, Shoes, Knowledge in Ilajeh

The CYFI Health Team conducted a malaria education and net and shoe distribution event in the Ilajeh community on Saturday.

The team, joined by the U.S. Consul General, Jeffrey Hawkins of the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, the CYFI Board, and other volunteers and supporters of the project, gathered community members for an informative and interactive presentation on malaria prevention. The presentation, which was interpreted into Yoruba, offered advice on the proper use of mosquito nets and engaged the community in ways to prevent the spread of the disease. Consul General Hawkins spoke on the importance of malaria prevention and the U.S. government's commitment to malaria prevention and other public health initiatives in Nigeria. Local government officials and media, including Silverbird TV, were also in attendance.

The CYFI Health Team has been educating the Ilajeh community about malaria prevention for the past several months.

The event concluded with a distribution of mosquito nets to women of the community and a shoe distribution to children of the community. Since many children of Ilajeh community run and play in the community's unpaved roads that are often littered with rocks and broken glass, t he shoe distribution was intended to complement the net distribution and promote the children's health and safety. C hildren turned in throngs to get the shoes, which were bought with donations by members of the U.S. Consulate.