COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MALARIA PREVENTION AND CONTROL PROGRAMS IN BOARDING SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY OF KADUHA SECTOR, NYAMAGABE DISTRICT, RWANDA

Community participation in malaria prevention and control programs is a critical factor affecting their success in high-risk settings such as boarding schools.This cross sectional study conducted at Ecole Secondaire Kaduha in Nyamagabe District, Rwanda, examined how stakeholder engagement, awareness of evaluation processes, and levels of participation influence malaria prevention outcomes. Data were collected from 100 participants (14 educators, 86 students) via surveys and interviews (98% response rate from 102 sample). Quantitative analysis (descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, linear regression) revealed a significant negative correlation between stakeholder involvement and perceived malaria disease level (r = 0.48 to 0.56, p < .01), and regression results (R = .72, R2 = .52, p < .001) indicated that stakeholder engagement accounted for over half of the variation in perceived malaria risk. Students reported greater familiarity with outcome evaluation (35%) than impact evaluation (19%); local health leaders had the highest participation in evaluation (M = 4.24, SD = 0.43) whereas students had the lowest (M = 1.49, SD = 0.50). Qualitative findings highlighted inconsistent planning and irregular resource allocation as major constraints to educator involvement. The findings suggest that robust multi-stakeholder engagement, inclusive planning, educator capacity building and student led initiatives supported by systematic monitoring and evaluation can strengthen malaria prevention efforts in boarding-school contexts.