No More Malaria: Village Drama Outreaches, Podcasting, and Programming Project

As part of the radio component of the project, Peace Corp Uganda volunteer, Chelsea Milko, provided training to radio presenters at Radio Pacis, a local radio station in the focus community. The training focused on building the capacity of journalists, production assistants, and presenters to produce programming with malaria behaviour change messaging. As a result, the station broadcast 15 news stories, 5 special features, and 3 talk shows, which reached approximately 10 million listeners across Northern Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A live drama was performed in communities in the rural West Nile villages of Aripea, Kuluba, Baracala, and Logiri, reaching 1,500 Ugandans. The drama, performed in the Lugbara language, was designed to use edutainment to provoke dialogue and reflection about malaria prevention and care. In addition to these performances, the "No More Malaria" drama script was translated into 3 local languages and performed by village health teams, school-age youth, and drama teams at World Malaria Month events organised by PCVs around Uganda.

Along with the drama, the community events included malaria bed net repair races and malaria quiz games. English and Lugbara malaria signage posted around the venue spaces also reinforced the malaria messages. At each of these events, the community also elected a community ambassador from their Village Health Team, who was tasked to carry out continual community sensitisation. Each ambassador received a booklet and visual aids.

An English-language podcast version of the drama was produced and distributed along with a radio broadcasting toolkit. These were distributed to PCVs for broadcast on radio stations and in communities and schools.

Malaria

The project is part of the ongoing Stomping Out Malaria in Africa programme. According to the programme website for Uganda, "in 2013, 44 PCVs participated in 72 malaria projects, reaching nearly 240,000 people in 83 communities." Activities include assisting with universal coverage campaigns, distributing bed nets, conducting home visits, and reaching out to schools and communities. Stomping Out Malaria is led by the Peace Corps in partnership with National Malaria Control Programs in the countries where they work, and in collaboration with the President's Malaria Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.