"Our family now sleeps under these," says Marie Misalie, 36, pointing to the two long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets she has received. Marie has three children alive, but lost three to illness, most likely malaria, which in Sierra Leone causes 38 per cent of deaths of children under 5. Marie says once she blamed the deaths on witchcraft but admits,

"Now I know I was wrong." Awareness came with the nets distribution to every household in the community, part of intensified interventions by the government and its partners.

Marie's house – like her neighbours' – has been sprayed in an Indoor Residual Spraying programme piloted by the Ministry of Health and supported by the United Nations Joint Trust Fund, through WHO "If one of us gets ill, it's really serious," Marie explains, "since my husband and I work together on our land and our family survives on what we produce.... Thankfully, hardly anyone around here complains of being sick of malaria nowadays," she adds.

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Photo: WHO - Sickness from malaria strikes this rural Sierra Leonean community much more rarely since they have received treated bednets and their houses have been sprayed with insecticide.