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| Bug Busters is a very innovative project that was launched as part of OBI’s Hurricane Katrina relief response. After the floodwaters receded, abandoned swimming pools became dangerous cesspools full of bacteria, debris, and a breeding ground for mosquitoes. With the threat of West Nile and Encephalitis City lurking and the failing medical infrastructure, city officials and the U.S. Center for Disease Control feared a second round of catastrophe. The New Orleans Mosquito Control Board approached Operation Blessing and asked for help. Together we shipped in a mosquito-larvae-eating fish called Gambusia Affinis and then trained and deployed hundreds of teams of volunteers to release the fish into 5,700 abandoned swimming pools. Thanks to the success of this project, OBI has now expanded the program and is distributing the same fish in stagnant water throughout Haiti to help fight mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria.
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