Faith Leader Advocacy for Malaria Elimination (FLAME) met in Otjiwarongo for three days to discuss ways of intensifying the fight against malaria.

Established in 2021 in Namibia, FLAME is a coalition of faith leaders driven to improve and sustain the health and well-being of those affected by malaria.

The coalitions are in areas with the highest malaria transmissions, that is, the Zambezi, Kavango East, Kavango West, Oshikoto, and Ohangwena Regions.

"Apart from the scarification of the country by the World Health Organisation, we also have our own domestic scarification of the country, and those regions fall into zone one, and zone one will have a higher risk in comparison to the other zones in the country. It doesn't mean that the lower risk is not considered; gradually, we hope to grow so that all the other malaria regions will have their coalitions of FLAME and malaria elimination task forces working together," said Lazarus Ngube, the National Chairperson for the FLAME Coalition.

According to Padelia Ngenokesho, the representative of the Malaria Taskforce, the aim was for Namibia to eliminate malaria by the end of last year in order for the country to join the list of countries certified malaria-free.

"We have a lot of challenges when it comes to the fight against malaria, one of which is the refusal of the interventions within the community members, such as the programme that is being done by the Ministry within the community with the aim to fight malaria or eliminate it from the country. Some reasons or challenges being faced by the programme are the late reporting of community members to the health facilities, causing malaria to spread," said Ngenokesho.

Faith Leader Advocacy for Malaria Elimination counterparts from Zambia and Angola also joined the Namibian FLAME Forum to show support.

Faith leaders willing to join FLAME to intensify the fight against malaria are welcome to contact the FLAME chairperson in their respective regions or find their contact details on the FLAME Facebook page.