This year the WHO’s theme for World Malaria Day is “End Malaria for Good.”

Although worldwide malaria rates are dropping, as a global population we have a long way to go to reach this goal, with 212 million new cases of malaria reported worldwide in 2015 and 429,000 malaria-related deaths. Fortunately, the answer lies in prevention.

In developing countries, prisoners can be more vulnerable than anybody else, without access to medical aid and sufficient living conditions.

Chris’ Battle with Malaria in Prison

Chris was arrested and detained in South Sudan whilst working for a Non-Governmental Organisation, and experienced a number of challenges, including:

There was no protection from mosquitos. I had malaria, gout, diarrhoea; one day I wasn’t able to move because standing up was just too painful.

Chris’ living conditions fell short of fundamental human rights, with running water only available for an hour a day and no medication available. Detained in the middle of a conflict zone, finding help with amending these rights abuses is not an easy task.

Read Chris' full story

Prisoners Abroad provided £99,668 in survival grants last year, to Britons in need detained in developing countries.

Access to cost-effective preventative tools such as insecticide-treated bed nets and medication for malaria prevention and treatment are vital to helping people like Chris who are detained abroad. In many developing countries, the survival grants Prisoners Abroad provide make a huge contribution to alleviating detainees’ suffering, and could even save their lives.

If you are interested in finding out more about malaria, the WHO’s World Malaria Day website can be found here.

If you are interested in helping to prevent and treat malaria and other threats to survival, information about donating to Prisoners Abroad can be found here.

#WorldMalariaDay #EndMalaria