NEW YORK (April 25, 2008) - On April 25, members of the Rwandan Government and a group of community members expected to number more than 20,000 will gather with Concern Worldwide to celebrate their dramatic success in the fight against malaria, the nation's leading cause of illness and death.

Today, with the support of the National Ministry of Health and a consortium of three NGOs led by Concern Worldwide, communities are taking the fight against this deadly public health threat into their own hands - and they're winning. A new initiative piloted by Concern and two partner NGOs has made major strides in the prevention and treatment of malaria in Rwanda, and has thus saved countless children's lives.

When Claudine Uwimana's son, Eric, showed the symptoms of malaria, she was overwhelmed with fear. Her daughter died from the disease a year before, but this time she was able to visit a community health worker and get anti-malarial drugs right away. Eric took the medicine and made a full-recovery.

Success stories like this one are due to an initiative called Home Based Management of Fever (HBMF) piloted in 2003 by Concern Worldwide and two other international NGOs. The initiative aimed to prove that specially trained community health workers could effectively diagnose and treat malaria in rural community settings. The pilot was a tremendous success, resulting in an increase of children treated within 24 hours of first onset of symptoms, per World Health Organization (WHO) target, from 14 percent to 58 percent. Rwanda's Ministry of Health has adopted the Home-Based Management approach as national policy. Prior to this change in policy, the national average was treatment after three days - time lost that puts a child with malaria in serious peril.

Building on this success, Concern and its two original partners have joined forces again to launch an expanded program - with the full support of Rwanda's national Ministry of Health and USAID. The new "Expanded Impact Child Survival Program" is now reaching one-fifth of Rwanda's population and over 25 percent of its children under five. Mothers in rural communities have been empowered to recognize fever, one of the first signs of malaria, and they can now seek treatment from local community health workers within 24 hours. Concern is also making mosquito nets and anti-malarial medicine affordable and available to families who previously had to walk for hours seeking health support and drugs they could not afford.

"While every life saved is an achievement, our goal is large-scale reduction in child mortality," says Michelle Kouletio, Health Advisor for Concern Worldwide US. "Our Rwanda program is different because it breaks the mold, bringing effective treatments right to people's neighborhoods - a vital, life-saving strategy for a population living on less than a dollar day. This is a big part of the child survival revolution. We've built the bridge between the Ministry of Health and the local communities, now it's up to them to make it work." Kouletio said.

She adds, "The US government has long led innovative programs that brought child health care out of the walls of health facilities and into communities. We could be doing this high-impact work in many other countries, but current federal funding is very tight, limiting us to developing programs in only one country per year. We could triple the reach of our programs if the US Congress passed this year's Child Survival Act."

In the past year, over 75,000 children were treated by Concern-trained and equipped Community Health Workers. Based on this success, Concern has facilitated passage of supportive policies to treat the two other leading burdens of childhood death, diarrhea and pneumonia, by these effective and accessible Community Health Workers.

Michelle Kouletio has worked in international health programming for over ten years, but she says, "The program in Rwanda is incredible in its scale. The earlier the children are treated with the right medicines, the better their chances of survival. "

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Visit www.concernusa.org learn more about Concern's Child Survival Program. Michelle Kouletio, Health Advisor for Concern's Rwanda program, is available for interview. For more information, please contact justin.schair @ concern.net