Malaria, Ebola, and Saving Lives

Last week, Mali announced a national strategic plan to scale up Community Health Workers in every region of the country. This initiative has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives, including significantly reducing the risk of an Ebola epidemic.
 
How was this achieved? Roll back a few years and meet Djeneba, a young girl living in Yirimadjo. Today she goes to school but her life was once threatened. Djeneba started getting high fevers but her parents did not have enough money to pay for care. They tried to break the fever by bathing her in herbal remedies and buying unregulated pharmaceuticals but the fevers persisted and became increasingly severe.