Young people in rural Hama, Syria join UNICEF’s efforts to raise awareness on skin diseases
UNICEF, with its partners, is helping fight Leishmaniasis through awareness-raising campaigns in 13 of the most affected villages of Hama and its rural villages.
Years of conflict and damage to the infrastructure in Hama have contributed to creating an environment where the parasitic skin disease Leishmaniasis can spread within the local communities. The disease, known locally as the ‘Aleppo Boil’, is spread by the bite of infected sand-flies that thrive in the piled-up waste and damaged sewers in the streets of Hama.
UNICEF, with its partners, is helping fight Leishmaniasis through awareness-raising campaigns in 13 of the most affected villages of Hama and its rural villages. Health workers in Hama are training young people on how to lead group discussions and peer-to-peer information sessions about the causes, detection and treatment of Leishmaniasis. Young people were also trained on the behavioural changes necessary to foster an environment unfavourable for the disease.
Recurring displacement of infected children and families coupled with incorrect practices when it comes to livestock keeping have further spread the infection in rural Hama.
“I didn’t know that dung could be a place for the ‘Aleppo Boil’ parasite to live,” says Amira, a local livestock keeper from Jarjisa in rural Hama who took part in one of the sessions. Amira’s husband and three children were all infected with Leishmaniasis.
"In the session today, we talked about the importance of hygiene and proper disposal of rubbish and animal droppings,"
UNICEF through 13 volunteer mobile teams, comprised of health workers and young people, helped raise the awareness of children, families, frontline health workers, community leaders, school teachers and livestock keepers in Hama and the rural outskirts, aiming to put an end to the epidemic.
