Since 2008, NALA has worked to eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Ethiopia. At least a quarter of the world's population, 1.5 billion people, suffer from NTDs that result in high morbidity, growth retardation, impaired mental development, and lost productivity due to disability. Recent studies have demonstrated clearly that eradication of Neglected Tropical Diseases is probably the most cost effective intervention in Global and Public Health. However, many poor communities lack the resources to prevent and treat these diseases, leading to a cycle of poverty and disease. NALA aims to break the poverty cycle by eradicating NTDs and other diseases of poverty. The NALA holistic approach eliminates the root causes of those diseases, leading to sustainable poverty reduction. As a result of NALA’s community intervention project, the city of Mekelle in Ethiopia (in the Tigray region), was proudly declared the first Ethiopian city to become Bilharzia free in 2014. The NALA Community Engagement Model is designed to achieve sustainable and measurable results in NTD eradication. It combines a number of integral elements using international and local volunteers to help facilitate behavioral change on the individual and community level. These elements include mass drug administration, health education and community campaigns that focus on school children as the primary messengers of change in health practices in the family, and improving basic water and sanitation infrastructure to ensure access to water and to clean latrines.
