Easy ways to prevention malaria in the remote villages

According to World Health Organization [WHO], In 2018, there were an estimated 228 million cases of malaria worldwide. 405 000 people died from malaria in 2018, children under five years were highly vulnerable”.  Malaria is the leading cause of death around the world and costs a significant national budget and according to WHO $2.7 billion.

Malaria is caused by plasmodium parasites.  the mode of transmission is infected female Anopheles mosquitoes biting healthy people. In this way, it transmits the plasmodium parasites from one person to another.

The mosquitoes find their way into the human environment only if human makes the environment conducive for them to live and reproduce.  Therefore, we mankind must not divert from simple but powerful ways of fighting mosquitoes.

If you want to fight mosquitoes, fight by way of making them insecure environments within your settings. Making the environment conducive, the mosquitoes feel safe to multiply and increase in population. When they are in numbers, they spread within the communities spreading the infection.    

So, where there are no health workers, the followings are some of the simplest but most powerful ways to put critical control measures to prevent infected female anopheles’ mosquitoes from transmitting the infection.

Lowering the tall grassland and clearing the tall bushy trees.

Within the vicinity of the community, the entire communities should work together lower the grassland. In the tall grassland, the mosquitoes can make a home there and lay their eggs and multiply in number. Under the shade trees and grassland, the mosquitoes find it safe to inhabit there. When the grassland and bushy trees are cleared, the area is now exposed to sunlight, as mosquitoes feel insecure about making their homes.  

Refilling the drains/water holes [etc.].

The mosquito lay their eggs in the drains, small water holes, in containers, small lakes, and swamps. So, the best prevention method is to drain out the water holes, lakes, swamps, opening both sides of the empty tins before throwing them into the dump. In this way, the mosquitoes do not have a safe home to live and reproduce their population.  Any sitting water must be drained out so that it becomes dry land.

Rubbish dump.

All the empty tins or containers must be open on both sides, then throw into the rubbish dump. The dump must be deep as mosquitoes cannot travel down into the dump to make a home. The mosquitoes are known how to choose a good home, and a dump is not a place to make a home.

Sleeping in treated mosquitoes nets.

If families can afford it, everyone including pregnant mothers, infants, kids and even adults, all should sleep in the treated mosquito nets.

Papua New Guinea buai Chewers are financially drained

Betel nut, in Melanesian Tok-Pisin it's called buai. It's a seed, covered with hard skin/cover. It's grown on an areca palm tree.

Chewing buai or betel nut is a tradition in Papua New Guinea, especially in three regions, namely MOMASE, Island and Papua/southern regions. It’s a generation pass on practice and continuing to date. 

In the highland’s region, chewing buai was not commonly practice.  It was introduced by three regions, and now they have huge buai trading at the grassroots level.  The Highlanders travel to three regions to buy buai and ship them to the highlands region.

The buai has advantages and disadvantages.

The good side of Buai /Betel nut.

In all social gatherings especially in three regions, buai is a must part of the social gathering. Buai infuse the energy,  vibe that enriches the social gathering spirit.

The people share buai to establish friendships with nearby or other communities. Buai opens the dialogue of friendship and goodwill.

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Chewing buai culture ignites social fun, many storytellings and, it’s a form of social stress relief way of life.

It brings families and friends together to share their feelings being togetherness. Like in the western world, a cup of coffee generates business ideas, establish business contacts, networking, and friendship of people of different social background, so in Papua New Guinea buai plays similar social roles. Buai builds and strengthens friendships.

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For the buai farmers, it’s a form of

 income for the families. The farmer sells buai to the wholesale buyers, then they sell them to retailers. It’s a huge business at the grassroots level, Buai is a cash economy and it's the fastest-selling product in the local market.

The bad side of Buai/Betel nut.

Albeit buai has a good side of the story but it also has its bad sides as well.

Buai can cause mouth cancer buai-blamed-for-cancer/, heart attack, gum decay, peptic ulcer high blood pressure (etc.) all in all, buai has caused significant health risks to chewers.  

Buai contributes to poor self and environmental hygiene. Many chewers have bad personal hygiene like dirty teeth, buai stained clothes. The chewers without care spite red buai out causing changes in the public

infrastructures like buildings, road, noticeboard (etc.). The buai skin or the hardcovers adds too much rubbish on the streets. The people’s attitude in chewing buai can shift government development funding priority to clean up the mess created by buai chewers.

Lots of people spend lots of money on buai. Many people said they are spending PGK10.00 to

PGK20 per day. Sometimes these can increase given with extended family members during chewing buai time. So, if someone is spending PGK10.00 on daily basis, in a year he can spend up to PGK3,650.00, so in ten years it will be PGK36,600.00.

A person can work out how much they spend on buai in a year. Chewers never go for holiday chewing buai, every day they chew. Therefore, to understand how much one spends should multiply by 365 days in a year and that’s how one spends on such a bad social habit.

Chewers outlook is always not appealing, so it's highly likely to affect the relationship with co-workers. Buai habits can reduce chances of job promotions or getting new getting a job.

Buai can drain all our money and make us poor and financially dry all the time.

Five steps in counselling session

In the counselling room, there are two people, sometimes it can be more than two people, which we call group counselling session. The clients bring in their stories to speak to the psychotherapists.  The psychotherapists guide the clients through five steps to talk over their issues and while psychotherapists use various micro counselling skills to stimulate the clients to open up their darkness.

• Open the session.

Open the session is to facilitate the session. To open the door, you need a key to do that, so to open the darkness of someone’s life, it needs someone trained to ignite the session to set the pace.

The highly effective session is achieved through the establishment of building rapport. The psychotherapists welcome the clients and help the clients become custom to the new environment. In this way, it helps the clients feel welcomed, thus settles in that space.  By doing so the psychotherapists create a safe, comfortable and secure environment so that the clients freely express themselves.

The psychotherapists must assure the client's confidentiality of the information the clients are about to share as it’s privileged information.

• Hearing the story.

The clients are asked to speak the reason for being there while the counsellors are attentively hearing their stories.  The counsellors attend, question and reflect on their stories thus gathers all the information presented to draw out their stories, worries, troubles which will help them set their platform for change.  

The counsellors apply various counselling micro-skills to help clients profoundly express themselves to empty themselves.  When all has been released to open space, the clients feel relief about it as someone has heard their stories.

• Prioritizing primary concerns.

After the information is gathered, the psychotherapists and the clients collaboratively assess and agree on the main issues from the client’s stories.

When the main issues are identified and established, now the psychotherapists and the clients categorize them into the order of importance so that both are focused and work towards the changes.

• Working on change.

The psychotherapists and clients collaboratively work on ways to bring about changes to the main issues that have emerged from the stories.

Here, psychotherapists and clients develop action plans which the clients can work on to bring about change in his or her life. The small steps they take contributes to a bigger scale of change.

The clients must work on the plans that have been drawn out so that they can experience the changes in their life.

• Close the session.

Before allowing the clients to re-enter the outside world, the clients may feel vulnerable after sharing their dark side, so to help them feel secure, the psychotherapist ties together the overall session and provide support information for the next step.

Health benefits of counselling services.

Counselling is a treatment approach for various psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression or substance misuse. Not many people seek counselling services, possibly due to the stigma and discrimination associated with counselling seeking behaviour.

 

The counselling services remains a powerful and unique way of supporting those who are encountering challenges in their lives. There are many benefits for seeking counselling services; some of which are listed below.

Clients can benefit from special attentive listening. 

In the counselling setting, there is someone specifically trained to respond to clients with a technique known as attentive listening. 

The clients feel important as someone has paid attention to them, and feel free to share their issues with the counsellor. 

As a result, the client benefits from attentive listening as someone had heard their stories, and can identify how those stories influence their overall life. 

From the opening of clients’ stories, counsellors will listen attentively and empathetically.

The clients will feel valued because their stories are respected, which can increase their self-confidence. This, in turn, allows a client to develop goals to overcome their problems. The counsellor's role is to assist the client to prioritize their issues and identify goals to work towards. 

In this way, the clients feel the luxury of the conducive counselling environment where they will feel comforted, as their stories received the professional’s attention. 

Unloading your emotions through talking:

If you feel that you are weighed down from an emotional perspective, this will be something you will be relieved to find out that your counsellor will understand. Counsellors have a deep understanding of people being weighed down by their feelings and emotions. This creates a stimulating conducive environment to unpack your mental worries. Unloading your mental weights can alleviate anxiety, and you will feel better through talking, and you will likely improve your overall quality of life. Carrying your emotional burden alone, whether it is a short or for a long time, is simply mental fatigue. 

Counsellors are trained to listen to your stories and help you explore them, thus allowing clients to express them deeply. This, in turn, allows a client to unload your fatigue and free their mind.

Develop & work on your goals:

Through counselling sessions, a counsellor can assist a client to develop goals and work through them.  As a result, the client can see the purpose and meaning of seeking counselling. It is not just about expressing your feelings and talking them over but also seeking a purpose to assist a client to overcome your problems. 

The counsellor supports the client with the development of their goals and implementation of behaviours and strategies that support goal attainment. These corrective actions help the client find happiness in their lives.

Information security protocol:

Clients can feel secure about the information they share with counsellors. The counsellors are highly trained people and well-placed to protect very sensitive information clients share. It is privileged information; hence, counsellors value the candidness and sensitivity of any information shared.  Before beginning a counselling session, the counsellor will outline the nature of confidentiality so that the client can be certain about the security of the information.

Improve the quality of overall physical well-being:

A counselling session has a significant focus on easing the client's distress regarding a specific psychological issue. This has an impact, namely - it improves overall physical well-being. 

Physical well-being, physiology and psychological health are all interrelated; each influences each other.  Hence, by attending counselling sessions, clients can benefit from improved energy levels, feel confident about themselves, improve appetite, sleep well, and improved social life.

Knowing your early mental health signs.

If you are feeling stressed or worried, and if those concerns are weighing your life,  it is important to pay attention with care.

The best way to do that is to know early signs of mental health conditions. The following are early mental health signs;

1. Feeling worried or anxious.

2. Feeling depressed or unhappy.

3. Emotional outburst.

4. Sleep problems.

5. Weight or appetite changes.

6. Quite or withdrawn. 

7. Substance abuse.

8. Feeling guilty or worthless.

9. Changes in behaviour or feeling. 

10. Headaches.

11. Feeling drained, hopeless, and empty.

If you experience the above mental health signs, you must speak to your psychotherapists/counsellors so that you are supported to redefine your future roadmap. 

Even the issues can be small but if it puts a weight on your mind, you better address them with professionals, otherwise, it will become too big to carry through.