MARKING its four decades of giving back to its communities, Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI), the social arm of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., looks back at one of its successful projects, Movement Against Malaria (MAM), which has reduced the number of malaria cases in the country and saved the lives of many Filipinos for over 20 years.
Initially known as Kilusan Ligtas Malaria, MAM was founded in 1999 and provided testing, awareness, prevention, and treatment of the illness commonly caused by a parasite transmitted via mosquito bites which, if left untreated, could result in fever, chills, pain, vomiting, and death.
Anti-malaria’s ‘first frontier’
THE success story of MAM started in Palawan, where before its inception, had 77,189 malaria cases and 103 deaths in 1998, as shown in its Provincial Office’s record. At that time, there was no proper diagnosis of patients in the region, and some patients were cured only for the symptoms.
“The elders said back then that they thought what was spreading was just a regular fever. Many patients actually died of malaria, but the people didn’t know the name of the disease at that time,” Laurensa Joldanero from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro said.
When she was assigned as a midwife in Labangan, Poblacion, she accompanied local government officials in doing health checks in many areas. According to her, the people were not even aware of the name of the medical condition before MAM was implemented.
The mountainous terrain posed a challenge for the program in bringing proper medical aid to those who lived in secluded areas. Volunteers like Lilibeth Mansuri from Brooke’s Point, Palawan not only gave treatment but also explained to the locals how to deal with malaria.
“It’s a big deal that I volunteered as a health worker to do rapid diagnostic tests [RDT], deliver the medicines, and translate the information into their language. We did that so the people can better understand the importance of this program,” she said.
Spread the word
GIVING out information about the disease was pivotal to the campaign’s success in the communities.
Doing borderline spraying and information dissemination during the PSFI seminars, Mansuri recounted: “Now when the people feel any symptoms, they immediately approach the malaria personnel because they already know more about malaria.”
Access to information also increased volunteerism which Joldanero said that “now that they have seen the good benefits of this program, they also join and help do borderline spraying.”
Since its initial success in Palawan, MAM has been rolled out to other areas nationwide. Its constant efforts to battle the disease resulted in a drop of cases to 4,266 and three deaths for the entire country in 2021.