Waterloo – MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) is on the front lines of a new $21 million project in Tanzania to get young children sleeping under life-protecting malaria nets over the next two years.

Working with the country's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, MEDA will be coordinating the distribution of 7.2 million LLINs (long-lasting insecticidal nets) at no cost to children under age five at village events over the next twelve months through a massive nationwide catch-up campaign.

The aim of the project is to cover 80 per cent of all children under five with an LLIN in a country that sees 18 million cases of malaria – and 80,000 deaths resulting from it – annually, 80 per cent of the victims being children under five and pregnant women.

Ninety per cent of Tanzania's 40 million residents live in areas where malaria is endemic or at epidemic risk. Pregnant women and young children are at highest risk.

Since 2004, MEDA has distributed more than 4.6 million insecticide-treated nets to pregnant women and infants through Hati Punguzo, a program of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s National Malaria Control Program and funded by the Global Fund and USAID’s President's Malaria Initiative.

This year, in addition to the mass LLIN distribution, MEDA will also be upgrading the Hati Punguzo voucher program targeted at pregnant women and infants. The new fixed "top-up" voucher means the customer will pay 500 shillings (about 30 cents), regardless of the retail price or where they live in the country. This is in contrast to the previous fixed-value voucher, which covered from 60 to 70 per cent of the cost of the net, where the top-up amount can change relative to the retail cost of the net.

To accomplish this across all 21 regions and many remote areas, MEDA has developed a distribution network of almost 7,000 retailers, 260 wholesalers and four manufacturers. Women receive a voucher during prenatal visits at one of 4,300 clinics across the country.

With an estimated six lives spared for every 1,000 nets sold, Hati Punguzo and MEDA have already saved more than 27,000 young lives – and are protecting countless more.