High school student Anna Green is on a trip to Senegal with her father, former US Ambassador Mark Green, and Malaria No More. Follow the father and daughter duo as they travel through Senegal and visit US-funded programs that are helping to prevent malaria in our new series, The Green Files.
ANNA GREEN, 17, high school student
This morning, we went to the Ibrahima Thiaw Parcelles Assainies School and watched its Malaria No More (MNM) club in action. The students performed songs and skits all around basic malaria lessons, and asked for many, many photos. Their plan is to perform at other schools and hopefully encourage the creation of MNM clubs there as well.
We paid a visit to an area where a lot of people do not sleep under a net for various reasons. Some people say it’s too hot to sleep under, while others choose to only sleep under it during the rainy season. Some say they just don’t think it’s necessary because they have never slept under a net and have never had malaria before. Some can’t afford a net. Our large group of thirteen split into groups of four or five and paid house visits to families in the neighborhood. We asked if they had nets and some people showed us nets they slept under that had large holes, making them pointless. Some people did have nets and said they sometimes slept under it.
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High school student Anna Green is on a trip to Senegal with her father, former US Ambassador Mark Green, and Malaria No More. Follow the father and daughter duo as they travel through Senegal and visit US-funded programs that are helping to prevent malaria in our new series, The Green Files.
ANNA GREEN, 17, high school student
As I packed for my week with the Malaria No More (MNM) team on our trip to Senegal, I couldn’t have been more excited. My past experiences in Africa have inspired me and made me grow as a person. Early in my high school career, I lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when my dad was serving as the US Ambassador there from 2007 to 08. During that time, I saw so much poverty and disease with the good people of Tanzania that it developed a sense of obligation within me. That’s part of why I’m on this trip. I want to make a change.
We arrived in Dakar early this morning after an overnight flight with such strong turbulence that even those of us who had taken sleeping aids hardly slept a wink. We landed before sunrise here, which with the time difference, was 1 a.m. our time. When we got to our (beautiful, on the beach, extremely scenic) hotel, I drank three cups of coffee to keep myself moving.
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