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Meet the People Behind the World’s Largest Mosquito Net Campaign

By The Global Fund

February 6^th, 2023

Salisu and his wife Basira brought their 2-year-old son Maila to the local health center in Sabon-Gari in Kano State, Nigeria, as soon as he showed signs of fever. He started having convulsions and tested positive for malaria. Little Maila was then rushed to a larger pediatric hospital, where he died several hours later despite every effort to save him.

“Many things remind me of him. He comes to me in my dreams,” says Salisu.

Meet the People Behind the World’s Largest Mosquito Net Campaign

After years of steady declines, malaria cases and deaths are on the rise.

Globally, malaria kills a child every minute.

Nigeria is home to the world’s largest burden of the disease, accounting for around 31% of all malaria-related deaths in 2021. While the number of people dying from malaria in the country has decreased by about 25% in the last two decades, the disease still claims more than 190,000 lives in Nigeria every year.

Most deaths occur among young children under 5, like Maila.

Mass mobilization to fight back malaria

The Global Fund, in collaboration with the government, nongovernmental organization partners and local communities, is fighting back against malaria in Nigeria, including through one of the world’s largest and most complex campaigns to ensure everyone sleeps under the protection of an insecticide-treated mosquito net.

With Global Fund investments, and despite challenges posed by COVID-19, conflict, displacement and difficult terrain, more than 87 million nets have been distributed across Nigeria over the last five years.

In Kano State, one of Nigeria’s most populous states, 8.8 million nets were recently delivered to more than 18 million people in a two-week campaign.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, families would collect their nets at a central distribution point within their communities, which often led to overcrowding and some families being missed. Today, in a new door-to-door approach, nets are taken to individual homes, resulting in more families receiving nets quickly and with ease.

Here are but a few of the thousands of people behind the campaign in Kano State.

Chinasa Abani - Logistician

The Kano State campaign is a massive logistical undertaking that moves 8.8 million nets from a state warehouse in the city of Kano to 44 local government storage facilities to more than 3,600 local distribution hubs to – finally – millions of individual homes.

The smooth execution of the net deliveries depends on the expertise of a team of logisticians. Chinasa Abani is one of them.

Chinasa and her team oversee the sourcing of various vehicles used to transport the nets.

“To move the nets from the local governments to the distribution hubs…we resort to smaller vehicles because the roads are narrower. In the riverine areas we use canoes; in sandy areas, we use vehicles with big tires. We also use horses, carts and donkeys in some locations,” she says.

Ismail Yusuf - Conveyor

Ismail Yusul also works at the mosquito net distribution hub in Gabasawa. He works as a conveyor and is responsible for ensuring the correct number of nets are dispatched to the correct destinations.

Abdulahi Saidu - Storage Manager

At another distribution hub in Dala, in northwest Kano State, storage manager Abdulahi Saidu ensures quality control of the nets and that the correct number of nets come in and out of the warehouse.

Abdulahi says that during the campaign he works 13-hour days but is happy with his job despite the long hours. He knows the nets will save many lives.

Chiamaka Dorathy Eze - Trainer

Once the nets reach the local distribution hubs thousands of four-person distribution teams go door-to-door in neighborhoods across the state, hand-delivering the nets to families. The teams consist of a security officer, a health educator, a distributor and a rickshaw puller.

The distributors are volunteers who receive a stipend for their work. They are trained to use a mobile application that allows them to enter the number of nets they issue per household, the coordinates of the house, and the names of the recipients.

The data is uploaded to a central database, which is monitored and analyzed every evening to ensure every community is covered by the campaign.

Chiamaka Dorathy Eze is a trainer who teaches the door-to-door distributors how to use the mobile application.

Aisha Aliyuyaro - Net Distributor

Aisha Aliyuyaro is one of the door-to-door net distributors. She heard about the campaign on the radio and was keen to get involved.

"I am motivated to participate in the campaign because of the way mosquitoes are affecting people, especially children,” she says. “My children, who use the net, are safe, but there are other children who are not covered."

Aisha travels by motorbike to each community and then walks from house to house, knocking on doors to distribute the nets and then uploading the relevant data. She works alongside an educator who discusses the proper use and maintenance of the nets with each family they visit.

The work can be tiring under the hot afternoon sun, but Aisha says it is also very rewarding.

“This work is very stressful, but it makes me happy to hear people’s gratitude. I am determined to get the nets to every household," she says.

Umma Abdulhamid - Net Distributor

Another door-to-door distributor is Umma Abdulhamid. Umma is a community health worker and has seen firsthand the impact malaria has on her community.

Umma and her team work in Dakata, a community just north of Kano city, where they reach approximately 200 households every day.

"My purpose for choosing this campaign is to help my people. I would like to open their eyes to the value of nets," she says. “Last month, the hospitals were filled."

Umma says that she hopes the nets will help protect more children and pregnant women and reduce hospital wait times.

Yau Mustapha - Net Distributor

Yau Mustapha was motivated to become a volunteer net distributor after hearing from his wife (who is a health worker) about the deadly impact malaria has on pregnant women.

Yau works in Mazangudu, a small farming village several kilometers away from the Kano city center.

As he and his team walk through the community, Yau shouts, "Peace be unto you. We are here to deliver nets to you and your family, so you are fully protected from malaria."

There is no health facility in Mazangudu, so when people fall ill with malaria, especially at night, the consequences can be deadly.

Yau is proud to be part of the campaign.

“To save a single life is worth more than millions [of dollars], for we really do not know what the children we are saving today might turn out to be in the future,” he says.

Aisha Lawal

Aisha Lawal is a mother of six children and lives in Gabasawa, Kano State. She was meant to attend a friend’s wedding, but instead she stayed at home to receive her family’s mosquito nets.

“If I choose a wedding over nets, how would my family sleep peacefully? Without the net here, one can rarely get that desired rest. Mosquitoes are an enemy of good sleep," she says.

Aisha also says that she appreciates that the nets are being distributed door-to-door rather than through a central pick-up point in town.

Hassana Sa-adu

When Hassana Sa-adu was pregnant with her now 2-year-old son, she contracted a severe case of malaria and required a blood transfusion.

“After that experience, I became much more careful,” she says. “God willing, these nets will protect the family from malaria fever. Mosquito nets are very important. They help keep the community healthy.”