Rotarians Eliminating Malaria in Tanzania aims to raise funds to provide chemically impregnated nets, insecticides and medicines as well as HaemaCue machines to check for malaria. Funding will be provided also for education and awareness through the training of local workers who will go into the villages to educate the local people in the way of symptoms, treatments and prevention. The project is based on getting the local people to take responsibility for the project and then supplying the technical expertise and equipment required. The two Rotary clubs of Arusha are the local partners.

REMIT is one of the preferred projects of RIBI President Brian Stoyel;
‘My first hand experience of Malaria came on my first working Overseas trip to The Gambia back in 1992 when our African bricklayers and labourers did not appear for work or if they did: looked very tired, ashen and lethargic. Apart from that they appeared normal.
After a day or so of illness they returned to work and then a few days later were struck down again. The children affected reminded me, incorrectly, of children with severe flu like symptoms. To those in the Western world this may appear very trivial but once the body is stricken with Malaria it is a reoccurring incidence. Even Paracetamol can be a source of relief to Malaria sufferers if you can afford the cost.
Of course the economic effects on family life are apparent when the wage earner, be it meagre or not, fails to earn any money.
During the course of my last nine visits Malaria is the ailment most described and of most concern to local health workers and perhaps it is not until you see a very fit, well nourished English friend struck down do you realise the potential implications of Malaria.
When elected as RIBI President for 2003/2004, I felt together we had the opportunity of laying a Foundation in making more people aware of this condition and how with education and nets we can make a difference to those in Tanzania.
It is vital that we make people aware of this condition and how with education and nets we can make a difference to those in Tanzania. In many hospitals you see bed nets all wrapped up neatly above the beds and they don’t lower them down at night. This is because the local people don't know what they need to do. One way REMIT can help is by symposiums which will educate the people about what needs doing to prevent malaria'.

There is no sure fire way of getting rid of malaria. Experts don’t want to get rid of the mosquitoes because they are in the food chain and don’t want to alter that, so they are looking at perhaps genetically modifying the mosquitoes in the long term. The first line of defence being the insecticide treated nets.

One Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) isn’t just for one person, with their way of life four people sleep under one net, father mother two children, grandparent etc. The cost is about £2.50 per net from us and we’re asking the local people to pay 67p which is 1000 Tanzanian shillings. The nets have got the Rotary logo on which will hopefully deter people from selling them on, which is a big possibility.

The ITNs are sold with an impregnation sachet and after a period of time REMIT will start circularising new sachets. The nets only have to be retreated every 12 months but even if its not treated the bed net is still effective it just means that once the mosquito is caught its not killed off.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland have joined with the Liverpool and London Schools of Tropical Medicine to combat malaria in Tanzania. They are also working closely with Dundee University who are working on long term prevention towards a vaccine but this is still a long way off.