● Activities for preventing endemic diseases
The residents of the target area of SUPA are force to live in an unhygienic circumstance without running water and electricity. To make the situation worse, as they rely on the water from river for drinking, certain protozoan called Guinea worm which lives in the water would get into the body to hazard the health of the people. To prevent this, you either drink underground water which is not contaminated with the protozoan or boiled river water.
A deep well is a well from which the underground water, with another name of "fossil water" confined in the depth of 50 meters since the ancient times, is pumped up. After the deep well installation, the incidence of "Guinea worm sickness" decreased as well as well as the chronic diarrhea. In addition to the deep well installation, a staff from SUPA had given instruction of meal-preparation as well as the basic knowledge of nutritious food for infants.
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| A long-awaited deep well constructed in the Ramaya village |
Session of the meal-preparation for children with weak constitution by the staff
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■Activity for preventing the endemic disease of Malaria by distributing the local-made mosquito nets (We oppose to the distribution of the mosquito nets with insecticide financed by ODA.)
At present, approximately 300 million to 500 million people in the world are being attacked by Malaria every year with 2 million people lose their lives by the disease. Ninety percent of the death by Malaria concentrated in the sub-Saharan Africa, and most of them are children aged less than 6 years old.
In an effort to make less of the incidence of the disease, SUPA distributed (lent) the local-made mosquito nets to the people in the target area of the Sanawaria village in the county of Tanene in Doburica prefecture, to decrease the number of death by Malaria.
In contrast, as a part of ODA activities in Japan, the insecticide "permethrin", the pyrethrine type of chemical which is developed by Sumitomo Chemical is stated as effective for blocking mosquito when used in the process of production of the net. In early 2005, Sumitomo Chemical had finished construction of the factory for mosquito nets to produce by the unit of 100 thousand, and the nets started to be distributed across whole Africa.
SUPA has been promoting the campaign against the distribution of these insecticide-contaminated mosquito nets for the following reasons.
medicine hasn't been developed at the incumbent stage.
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As it originally has the function to block mosquito, it is absolutely unnecessary to use insecticide in the mosquito net. SUPA distributed the local-made mosquito nets in the target area
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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has been pointed out that the insecticide named "permethrin", which is used in the mosquito net, can cause cancer. The indication endorses the high possibility of the chemical to bring hazardous effects on the users' health.
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The cost of the local mosquito net SUPA distributes to the people is approximately 200 yen per unit whereas the cost for one unit of the mosquito net with insecticide is about 700 yen with which 3 times of the number of regular net can be distributed. We are obliged to say that the production of mosquito net with insecticide is unnecessary as well as a waste of the tax payers' money.
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Local-made regular mosquito net, the kind SUPA distributes (lend) to the people.
In the instruction manual of the above mentioned mosquito net produced by Sumitomo Chemical, the words "Do not eat foods with the hands after touching the net" are written. The majority of the residents cannot read them with the low literacy rate in West Africa. And the people customary eat foods with bear hands. The children are exposed to danger.
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● Construction of elementary schools
Education activities which began with a class to teach children letters in a thatched house
Three villages SUPA involved had belonged to the most impoverished area of Guinea, with no access to such facilities as public offices, schools and medical clinics. With the aim of providing children the opportunity for education, the thatched house was built in the Madina village in 1998 to open the classroom to teach letters to the children, and the next year, another school was built in the hamlet of Kamba, both of them by voluntary villagers with guidance by SUPA.
But, a hatched house is poor in durability, a leak in the roof frequented, and at the same time the classroom was becoming too small for the increased number of children who wish to study at the school. So, in 2000, we reconstructed the first thatched-house-classroom of Madina into the school of authentic concrete block building composed by two class rooms. Also in 2002, we constructed the elementary school containing three classrooms which capacitate for 150 schoolchildren, in the Kamba district.
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Students learn in the first classroom in the hatched house.
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The inauguration ceremony of the Madina elementary school.
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| The first concrete-block school building in the village was completed. |
A scene from the new school building Children of 6-14 years old study in the same class.
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