Dr. Coulibaly shares his view on Target Malaria Mali
Posted 23
We are quite excited about the new challenges this year brings to the Target Malaria team in Mali. We have made great progress and are enthusiastic to build further on the strong foundations we have established as a team and as an international not-for-profit research consortium. To that end, we have invested in capacity building with trainings, equipment and technology transfer to prepare us for a new exciting phase. The team is very optimistic even though a substantial amount of work is ahead of us.
We have a dedicated team in Mali who is ready to take on this new challenge. Every single person involved in the project has its importance and is part of a bigger and inclusive picture. We have a great cohesion within the team and there is a growing understanding of our work by the academic autorithies and by the government. They are willing to accompany us in our journey and to see our project being successful.
This year, the entomology team will work on different activities. They will be studying mosquitoes population in the villages and the interactions between the targeted species and their environement. Furthermore, the team will continue working on the characterisation of the vectors found at the collecting field sites, understanding key mosquito behaviour and mastering the mark-release-recapture activities.
In parallel to the research component of our work,we are also working in engaging local communities and key stakeholders. We explain to local communities the project in details to try and ensure their social acceptance of the project. We similarly engage with stakeholders at the regional and national level.
And last but not least, our management team is of great help in ensuring that all of the different pieces of the project fits well together and that all the logistics behind our various activities are put in place.
Malaria-endemic countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Uganda are well aware of the challenges they have to face to tackle a disease like malaria. We know the way forward is not an easy path but we are exited that a project like Target Malaria is working to its best to coordinate efforts accross all partner countries while respecting the specificities of one another.
