MOSQUITO
AWARENESS
For my Girl Scouts Gold Award, I decided that I wanted to make my project public health related because I truly feel that educating others about ways to prevent disease in an effort to improve and protect communities' health and well-being is essential. I believe that working to lessen health disparities globally is critical especially in today's time, and this is why I determined that I would carry out my project in India, as many citizens there unfortunately do not have the resources or knowledge to prevent ailments. I ultimately decided to focus my project on raising awareness about the relationship between mosquitos and the many diseases they transmit. I have a connection to preventing mosquito-borne diseases, because I have relatives in India who have been affected by these diseases such as Dengue fever, and unfortunately I have seen them suffer as a result. This is why I committed myself to travel to Maharashtra, India, in the city of Shirdi, to educate residents about effective and imperative ways to prevent the transmission of infections through mosquitos bites.
I visited the Sai Gurukal English Medium School in Shirdi to inform the students there by showing a presentation I created about mosquito-borne diseases and how to prevent obtaining them. In addition, I distributed handouts with these mosquito prevention methods in Hindi along with images pertaining to the approaches, as well as electric mosquito rackets to the students and the teachers employed at the school.
At the Dwarakamai Vruddhashram Nursing Home in Shirdi, I spoke to them about these prevention methods and handed out flyers as well as mosquito nets to cover their beds to prevent mosquitos from coming near them while resting or sleeping. Mosquito nets are actually one of the most important ways to protect against malaria and other diseases spread by mosquitoes, and some of these nets can be effective for as long as three to five years. At both the English Medium School and nursing home, my mom's friend's daughter graciously offered to help translate what I was expressing while presenting in English in Marathi, so that nothing got lost in translation and to ensure that everything I communicated was being fully understood.
Along with the school and nursing home, I visited the Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, which has an average of 25,000 pilgrims visiting it a day and during religious festivals the number can reach about 100,000. I figured that by disseminating mosquito awareness information at the temple and around the temple, I would have the chance to inform as many individuals as possible. I was also able to distribute mosquito repellent bracelets to the devotees either in the temple or the ones waiting on line to enter the grounds.
I attached the PDF version of the powerpoint I presented to the students as well as the flyer I distributed at the school nursing home, and temple for reference.
Powerpoint
Flyer in English