This morning I was checking Twitter, it’s only been a few months since I started using Twitter but I love it. I follow some of my favorite News sources, fellow travelers, photographers, non-profit organizations, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), a few athletes (yes Apolo), a few celebrities (Jamie Oliver and Ellen) and even a girl who is a traveling stripper.
I noticed today a lot of my NGOs and news sources were talking about Malaria, and then I remembered today was World Malaria Day. Two days ago GOOD magazine posted this video on their Facebook page. It created a bit of controversy. As you see it is in fact a “fake” news story, about an outbreak of Malaria reaching a town in California. There were some readers that were absolutely appalled at the fact that GOOD would resort to “scare tactics”, some thought that GOOD would have done a better job by showing real footage of real people suffering from Malaria.
I personally thought it was an excellent video driving home the fact that if Malaria was killing 3,000 American children a day like it does in Africa, we as Americans would be doing something about it.
I also feel that if GOOD had gone the way of showing the true faces of malaria of African children and Haitian children dying, most Americans would be immune to just another video showing the effects of the poor, sick and suffering in a country very far away from the world they live in. If one American child was dying EVERY 30 SECONDS (like it is in Africa) from Malaria there would be a DEMAND to eradicate or at least find ways to prevent Malaria.
While organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are working towards a Malaria vaccine, there are many organizations who are handling the immediate need of providing bed nets to those who live in Malaria stricken countries. Sweet Sleep provides bed nets to every child they give a bed to, bed nets cost $10.00.
Last summer Sweet Sleep gave beds and nets to the Greater Life Orphanage, while we were there in December, they mentioned that the number of Malaria outbreaks had dropped tremendously. Just $10 can save a child’s life, a $10 bed net can prevent a working adult from getting malaria, can keep them employed, can keep the economy of their country moving, forward, ten bucks that’s it?!
In December during the three weeks I was in Uganda, we developed close relationships with approximately 30 people. Thirty people who we saw more than once, knew their names, still know their names, will see when we go back to Uganda. Six of them had malaria, six of them who admitted out loud to us that they were sick with malaria while we were there. Who knows how many countless others we came in contact over those three weeks who were sick with malaria, but we didn’t know about it. 1 in 5 of the people we know had malaria while we were there. Here are some of the their stories:
Patrick is 13 years old and lives in a orphanage. The first day we met him, he was sick with malaria, with a fever, with the shakes, and lethargic. Candis the director of the orphanage was going to take him to the local clinic on her way to dropping us off at our hotel. The local clinic was jam packed and Beth a woman we were traveling with offered to pay for Patrick’s treatment at a private clinic. Patrick ended up having cerebral malaria, that could have killed him in 48 hours had he not received treatment. He spent 2 days in the hospital, had three IV drips and $11 later. Yes that’s right $11 and Patrick was back to being a healthy 13 year old. $11 between life and death.
Godfrey the manager of the hotel we stayed in, came down with malaria while we were there, he missed 2 days of work. It was the fourth time that year he’d had an outbreak.
Sharon, Catherine and Fa Fa all girls from the same orphanage as Patrick sick with Malaria while we where there.
Rose, a woman who was our interpreter and guide to the six IDP camps we gave beds to, so sick one of the days we went to camp, we had to pull over twice so she could vomit. We had to rearrange our schedule for the next few days, so she could recover from this outbreak.
To most Americans, Malaria is a disease that happens in far off exotic countries, inflicted by a mosquito bite, so how bad can it be? Malaria kills ONE CHILD EVERY 30 SECONDS in Africa. Malaria impedes the economies of these developing countries, sick adults miss work, the economy slows, the forward moving motion of change, slows, sick children, miss school, miss opportunities to improve the living situation they are in, until a malaria vaccine comes on the market or malaria is eradicated, a $10 bed net can make the difference between life and death.
The purpose of this blog today isn’t to guilt you into buying a bed net, though if it worked sweet! The purpose of this blog today is to bring awareness to the reality of Malaria and how it effects millions of people a day and the importance of eradicating this disease sooner rather than later.
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