Planting Artemisia annua: a plant to decrease school absenteeism!

13th February 2017
by secretary

Paepard

IDAY supports the growing use Artemisia annua to treat malaria, a plant used by the Chinese for over 2,000 years. IDAY is an ngo baised in Braine-l’Alleud Belgium.

Artemisia annua is a repellent against the mosquito which carries the disease and is mostly used to prevent malaria by drinking one cup of tea a day for 9 days each month. The tea is a natural polytherapy containing compounds that act in synergy to fight against malaria; it has no side effects, and the efficiency rate exceeds 90%. Research conducted in the US by Professor Pamela Weathers at Worchester Polytechnic Institute on rodents has confirmed the superiority of the Artemisia annua natural treatment compared to medication and its lesser sensitivity to resistances.

In a pilot program promoted by IDAY-Kenya in the Kisumu region (Kenya), an area heavily affected by malaria, Artemisia annua was planted by students from two secondary schools. Preventative treatment with the tea has proven to be astonishingly effective. School absenteeism disappeared, and health expenditures dropped by up to 80%. Students’ academic performance skyrocketed: in 2010, in one of the participating schools, all of the pupils who applied to university were admitted. Following this success, numerous schools in Kenya adopted the plant and Artemisia annua projects have also been launched by IDAY members in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

The programmes comprises three other components : plantations of school gardens, youth exchanges to facilitate the dissemination of the growing techniques of Artemisia annua and the organisation of colloquiums in Africa to bring together political and institutional authorities, reseachers and practicians of Artemisia annua.

In English: Artemisia annua – Cultivation methods of a plant with a great future

In French: Artemisia annua – Méthodes de culture d’une plante d’avenir

Source: PAEPARD FEED

Planting Artemisia annua: a plant to decrease school absenteeism!

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