Children help prevent cholera in Guinea-Bissau
03-12-2010 - In 2008, the last national cholera epidemic in Guinea-Bissau resulted in 14,228 cases and 225 deaths. Since then, Plan developed and implemented a cholera awareness and prevention campaign to prevent future outbreaks and protect children’s lives. So far, Plan Guinea- Bissau helped around 269,000 people.
The Strategy is Simple
The Plan cholera prevention strategy is simple: distribute bleach and educate people on how to reduce the risk of the disease. Supporting teams clean latrines in public places and advocate for personal hygiene, such as hand washing.
Now, educated parents and communities can practice basic hygiene and raise their children in healthy environment without a risk of getting cholera.
“Before I didn’t disinfect my water with bleach, I would boil or put lemon in. Thanks to the Plan hygiene campaign, now I use bleach to disinfect the water I use and sell,” says Mariama, a 42-year-old water seller in Bafata market.
Read more about Plan's Health programmes
Children Spread the Word
Plan Guinea-Bissau not only educates adults but also makes sure that children know how to protect themselves against the disease. Plan created Child Participation Groups and involved them in a competition to select the cleanest house in Bafata region. The judging board made up of young teenagers visit “morancas” (family compounds) every week to elect the weekly “winning” family which is announced in schools and on local radio. The competition gives a chance to promote child-led hygiene and hand-washing effort.
Children also become aware of the importance of sanitation and keeping the household and surroundings clean.
"My friends and I cleaned the main water point in our village, Ga-Faty. We also spoke to adults on how to prevent cholera by disinfecting water with bleach,” said 14-year-old Mussa, a Plan International's Child Participation Groups member.
In the last two years no children died from cholera and the total number of cases has gone down, all the result of a simple and successful approach to cholera prevention led by Plan.
Help Haitians to protect themselves from the worst cholera outbreak.
