On April 25, 2015, the eighth World Malaria Day, as a member of the global Roll Back Malaria (RBM) programme, Guilin Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (“Guilin Pharma”) organized overseas teams in multiple countries of Africa to actively participate in World Malaria Day celebrations as usual.

Particularly in Tanzania, East Africa, as a part of the Company’s Malaria Education Programme, Guilin Pharma, for the first time, partnered up with National Malaria Control Programme to produce a popular science film themed with “The Fight Against Malaria. What Can We Do?” to fight against malaria. On the World Malria Day, Saidi M. Sadiki, the executive officer of Tanzania’s capital city Dar es Salaam, pressed the play button, successfully making its world debut.

The 4-minutes popular science film is jointly produced by Guilin Pharma and Malaria Prevention & Treatment Committee under Tanzania Ministry of Health, aiming at propagating knowledge of malaria prevention among children and communities, enhancing local residents’, especially the susceptible population’s self-protection awareness, and delivering a simple but easily overlooked fact—malaria prevention not only is the responsibility of doctors, but everyone should take the responsibility and make efforts together. The film was produced in children’s favorite form, animation. From the angle of an 8-year-old African boy Baraka, the film delivers general knowledge about malaria as well as simple and effective precautionary measures, which makes malaria prevention be easy to learn and practice.

The film won the praise from officers of Anti-Malaria Committee under Tanzania Ministry of Health, local medical and public health professionals, community workers and hundreds of primary school students present. A director of a local maternity hospital contacted Guilin Pharma staff, expressing her hope for early introducing of the programme to her hospital system, and stated, “This film is exactly what I’ve been looking for all the time. I hope to introduce it to pregnant women during their waiting for treatment, so that they can learn basic knowledge about self-protection and protection for their families. The film is just amazing!”

This is the second public welfare project against malaria after eCME launched by Guilin Pharma, and the first popular science activity for ordinary people. In addition to Tanzania, the Company will release the film in 6 English-speaking countries in Africa including Uganda and Kenya as well as 17 French-speaking countries including Cote d'ivoire and Cameroon within this year. Also, a French version and a Swahili version of the film are planned to be released in May 2015, along with brochures printed in the three languages to be distributed through schools, communities and medical institutions with the help of NMCP in different countries.

Although since 2000 when the work of malaria prevention and control has been making progress and the situation of malaria epidemics has been alleviated in many regions all over the world, more than 500,000 people die from the disease each year while the disease is preventable.

As the world’s only supplier providing artesunate for injection in accordance with international quality certification (artesunate for injection is a kind of frontline emergency medicine against severe malaria), Guilin Pharma has always devoted to raising public awareness of malaria prevention and reducing incidences of malaria, which has already become the company’s commitment to Africa as well as part of its social responsibility. Additionally, the Company keeps actively participating in World Malaria Day events and other popular science activities.

To fight against malaria, we have always been on the move!