Radio Drama Stops Malaria

Written by Lusayo Banda, Edited by Chancy Mauluka

In the Kamala village of the Phalombe district lives Emily Yona with her husband Mr. Yona. While Mr. Yona is a traveller who cuts woods for construction companies, Emily stays at home with their kids and buys tomatoes in town to sell in her village.

For two years, Emily Yona and her husband struggled with hospital bills because their children were frequently sick and diagnosed with malaria. Emily, a 28-year-old mother of two, says the family could not understand why their children were constantly suffering from malaria.  The constant malaria infections in their family made it difficult for Emily to carry out her daily tasks, and she was frequently unable to go and buy tomatoes to sell in her village, resulting in a loss of income for her family.

The couple was puzzled with the situation and did not know what to do to resolve it. But Emily recalls one Thursday night in June when she accidentally listened to the Moyo ndi Mpamba radio drama on MBC Radio. According to Emily, it was a turning point for her family, as it marked the beginning of a reflection on their choices and behaviours and a quest for a solution to their malaria problem.

Her face lights up as she holds her youngest child and recalls: “It was just as if they had made the program for me. They were talking about the need to sleep in an insecticide treated mosquito net every night all year round. There is a woman by the name of Nasilina [in the program] who got sick because she did not sleep in a mosquito net and this is exactly what we were doing… I made a decision that I and my family are going to sleep in a mosquito net every night throughout the year.”

She says she feared for her youngest child and did not know what to do to protect her until she heard the radio program. All Emily wanted was for her child to grow up healthy. She decided to follow the example of the characters on the Moyo ndi Mpamba radio serial drama and to protect her child and her family from malaria.

She adds that the family had mosquito nets in their home, but did not see the importance of sleeping under them before hearing Nasilina’s story. The family regarded the mosquito nets as decorations. But the drama made Emily want to change her family’s behaviour, and she is now making sure that every member of the family sleeps under an insecticide treated mosquito net every night.

Emily says that ever since she made the decision to have her family sleep under a treated mosquito net every night all year round, things have changed. Midnight visits to the hospital have stopped.

“Now look...Martha plays with other kids because she is not sick. Because she’s healthy and happy, I can comfortably leave her behind when going on business errands to town. And what makes me feel even better is that there are no midnight visits to the clinic as we did before. I look forward to learning more from the drama,” concludes Emily, smiling.