The #1 Killer and its Sidekicks Take a Holiday

Just the day before, we had visited the local clinic, a tidy, clean, white stucco building run by the clinician, Mr. Quisito. To the question of what the malarial infection rate was at the present, he answered, “The rate of malarial infections should drop now that the wet season is ending and the winter months are beginning. But, last month, I treated 1000 people for malaria.” To put that in perspective, the total Sena population is a few thousand. This infection rate is both understandable and shocking. Worldwide, Mozambique has the fourth highest annual number of malarial cases. The effect from these infections is often devastating. A case-in-point is the role it plays in the death of young children. In 2019, over a quarter of a million children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa, who contracted Malaria died. That works out to nearly 750 children dying each day, or one child every two minutes of every day of the year. To quote Mr. Quisito again, “Malaria is the #1 killer in Mozambique.”

The lessening of the malaria stranglehold on the most vulnerable Sena villagers – the young, pregnant and the elderly – is another example of Trophy Hunters’ money in action. In this instance, the Cabela Family Foundation, led by the family matriarch, Mary Cabela, paid for the construction of the Clinic that houses Mr. Quisito. Zambeze Delta Safaris covers the cost of the upkeep, while the government pays Mr. Quisito’s salary and provides the medicines and other supplies.The Clinic opened its doors in 2018. Since then, thousands of doses of malarial-curing drugs have been handed out for free. Each dose reflects the promise of a child’s life, a pregnant mother’s life, or an elderly Sena’s life saved. Before the clinic, there were only visits by mobile vehicles every two months or so, or a days-long-journey by foot to distant hospitals for the sick. In between the mobile health care vehicle’s rounds, or while on their terrible travels to hospitals, people died from malaria. It also bears repeating that because of Zambeze Delta Safaris' game meat and fishing programs as well as the community agricultural field, malnourishment is negligible (if not zero) within Coutada 11. Good nutrition is always of paramount importance in the ability to fend off the worse symptoms of diseases like malaria. 

Excerpt from Mike's Upcoming Book: BRINGING BACK THE LIONS: International Hunters, Local Tribespeople, and the Miraculous Rescue of a Doomed Ecosystem in Mozambique