Imagine, for a moment, living in a country where malaria was prevalent, and let yourself experience how it would feel to watch your child suffer and die from this preventable disease. It’s scary and upsetting, isn’t it?
This is a tragedy faced every day by families living in parts of Africa.
Then, imagine if you found out that a simple piece of net, stitched into the form of a mosquito net and draped around a room could keep the infected mosquitoes that spread this potentially fatal disease away from your child, followed by the crushing realization that your meager earnings would not cover the cost.
Then, imagine learning that there is an organization is working to help get this simple technology to homes like yours. It’s like an emotional roller coaster ride, isn’t it?
You could only hope that help would come quickly enough to save your family, your child.
Providing Mosquito Nets
At Develop Africa, we are working to provide that direly needed protection to those at the highest risk of contracting and dying from malaria, and you can help save the lives of these precious, endangered children.
Nothing is as heartbreaking as the death of child, and it can be hard to believe that every day, in Africa, children die from something as common as a disease spread by an insect bite - malaria.
It’s even sadder to realize that many of the deaths are preventable, if only the families had access to something as simple as a thin mosquito netting draped around the sleeping quarters, which has been proven to be the least expensive, effective way to stop the spread of this potentially fatal disease.
Mosquito Nets Protect Children
For the most part, mosquitoes feed in the night, so draping a mosquito net, which is also treated with insecticide, around a family’s sleeping area, keeps the biting insects away.
If mosquitoes don’t get a chance to bite the sleeping potential victims, then the children don’t become victims, and ultimately their lives are spared.
There are other ways to keep mosquitoes at bay, but their costs are higher, and in a community where basic needs, such as food, can sometimes seem like a luxury, cost-effective measures, such as the use of netting to keep sleeping quarters mosquito-free, are ideal.
Keeping disease-carrying, biting mosquitos away from sleeping children also contributes to their health by allowing for a restful night’s sleep, improving the quality of life and enhancing the children’s ability to learn.
Is Malaria Always Fatal?
Malaria kills more children in Africa, every day, than anything else does, especially in the poorer, Sub-Saharan regions of the continent, but it is not fatal in every case.
While not always fatal, malaria can be, and is, fatal to those who have not had an opportunity to build up an immunity to the disease. This is why young children are so highly at risk of death if bitten by mosquitos.
Even when malaria cases are not fatal, this parasite-borne disease is severely painful to the victims, who experience severe fever, nausea, muscle pain, headache, jaundice, anemia, and bloody stools.
Now, imagine again, only this time imagine you are the sick child, and you are a child experiencing these brutal symptoms.
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You wouldn’t be able to sleep.
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You wouldn’t be able to eat.
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You would vomit any food you tried to eat.
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Drinking would be difficult, if not impossible.
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You wouldn’t be able to learn.
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It would be hard to stand up.
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You would have no thought of playing or enjoying life.
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You wouldn’t know if you were going to live or die.
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You wouldn’t understand what was racking your tiny body with pain.
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You wouldn’t be able to do anything but suffer.
How You Can Save Child’s Life
You can help protect endangered children from the risk of contracting malaria.
You can help from the safety of your home. You don’t have to hop on a plane and fly to Africa. You don’t have to sit down in front of your sewing machine and stitch up mosquito netting to send to a family in need.
You can help an organization that has already started working to help these innocent children live healthy lives so they can grow up and experience life.
At Develop Africa, we have started the work, and with your help we can continue; many young lives will be spared from experiencing the horror and pain of contracting malaria, and it is so easy to join in the fight to save these young lives.
Make a donation to help protect children from the spread of malaria in Africa. It’s tax-deductible, and the organization accepts one-time cash gifts, recurring cash donations, and even non-monetary gifts, such as cars or other types of collectibles.
You can even help save children from the risk of malaria by shopping! You can donate American Express Membership Rewards points, or register with GoodShop before shopping online. GoodShop saves you money and sends 20% of your purchase price to Develop Africa so we can keep helping these innocent children and their families.
Written by Laure Justice
Sources:
http://www.developafrica.org/donations
http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/malaria_worldwide/index.html
http://www.malariacampaign.ca/
