Enabel

Today is #WorldMalariaDay . In Burundi, malaria isn't an abstraction. Around 5 million cases every year, hundreds of deaths, and in the northern provinces where we work, incidence climbs above 400 per 1,000. Children under five pay most of the bill. We don't mark this day with slogans. We mark it with the unglamorous work of keeping a health system standing while a parasite keeps outsmarting it. Enabel 's office sits inside the PNLP in Bujumbura. The districts we support — Kirundo, Cibitoke — are remote. We bridge that distance by keeping experts in the field every day of the week, shoulder to shoulder with Mathias NSABIMANA and Leila Kaze at the PNLP. That is our "double anchorage": close enough to national strategy to shape it, close enough to the CHW on a dirt road to know when it doesn't hold up. Innovation only matters when it lands, and it never lands alone. With Audere ( Shawna Cooper ) on AI-supported RDT interpretation (Malariya Pi), Bluesquare ( Bram Piot and Alice Irakoze ) on the National Malaria Data Repository, PostFactum on Open Clinic, and Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp ( Anna Rosanas-Urgell ) on molecular surveillance — we keep one step ahead of the parasite. None of this stands alone. Enabel has worked alongside Burundi's Ministry of Health for over 25 years — maternal health, digitization, infrastructure, health financing, governance. The continuity carried by Adelin MUDONZI , Ann Dedeurwaerdere and Stefaan ML.J. Van Bastelaere is what turns a project into a system. Elimination won't come from one product, one donor, or one ministry. It will come from a system that learns faster than the parasite mutates. This would not be possible without the strong partnership and support of Belgium and the Gates Foundation. #WorldMalariaDay #Malaria #HealthSystems #Burundi #Enabel