April 25th is World Malaria Day. Normally, we commemorate these days, in recognition of those suffering worldwide from diseases like malaria. This year, however, I'm part of a group celebrating the day instead and calling on others to do the same.
I'm in New York with my organization PSI (Population Services International), and our partners at Nothing But Nets and Roll Back Malaria to celebrate thousands of "Champions in the Fight Against Malaria" -- individual champions who are helping to reduce the number of people dying every day from the disease.
The list of champions includes people like basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo and the executive director of Roll Back Malaria, Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck. But it also includes people like Nathaniel Stafford, a 12-year-old boy who walked more than 100 miles to raise enough money to provide a thousand families with an insecticide-treated mosquito net. Malaria rates are dropping across Africa because of the these champions who have joined the movement to end malaria. But we need continued support and funding to maintain that momentum.
Hearing Nathaniel's story got me thinking... what is it that motivates people to take action around health issues that affect the global community, but that don't necessarily affect us directly -- issues like malaria, malnutrition or HIV? And if we did a better job of sharing our own personal stories, could we help inspire more people to act? Hey, Malcolm Gladwell -- if you're reading this -- really curious to hear your thoughts on what motivates people to act.
My personal journey started about three years ago, when I was first introduced to PSI. My first trip with them was to Southern Sudan in 2009, where I helped launch a large-scale malaria prevention campaign and net distribution that was being funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PSI is the largest distributor of mosquito nets worldwide and will soon be delivering its 125 millionth net during a distribution campaign planned for the Democratic Republic of Congo later this year.
That trip was the first time that I was able to fully understand the devastating impact of malaria on children, mothers and whole communities. It was also the moment that solidified my commitment to use whatever voice or platform I might have to spread the word.
ABC News just launched Be the Change: Save a Life, a new global health initiative that's all about helping people better understand the impact of malaria and other diseases that disproportionately impact the world's poorest people. But as we all know, awareness is one thing, taking action another. So in addition to stories about people who driving solutions to the biggest global health challenges of our day, they've created a constant stream of new action opportunities and ways to get involved in the issues you care about, all available on their website at www.saveone.net. So whether you're looking to give, volunteer, or create your own solution, it's literally never been easier to save a life.
The team at Be the Change: Save a Life are just as interested in hearing your stories of inspiration as I am. In fact, they've agreed to help us in a challenge for all of you: Send in a short 300-500 word story about what's inspired you to take action to improve the world around you. I'll do my best to highlight those stories on my blog and elsewhere, and ABC will likewise feature select essays on www.saveone.net. Send the story to ABCSaveaLife@gmail.com by midnight on Sunday May 1st, 2011
I am struck every day by the groundswell of people young and old, from every conceivable background, who have refused to sit idly by and wait for someone else to solve the challenges facing the planet and the people living on it.
You don't have to settle for simply being a part of the movement; by sharing your story and inspiring others to follow your lead, you can help make the movement.
Learn more: www.saveone.net | www.facebook.com/ABCSaveALife | @ABCSaveALife
Mandy Moore: Honoring Our Unsung Leaders: Children
The water stagnation in these countries is caused by:
- poor water drainage around roads, cities and other developments,
-lack of sewer treatment and water treatment plants/lack of modern sewage systems, (open sewers/sewage runs through the streets).
-dams which can stagnate entire downstream river systems and dam reservoirs which are often semi-stagnant,
Pesticide treated bed nets, pesticide spraying, anti-malarial drugs, vaccines and genetically engineered mosquitos are only temporary fixes which mosquitos, and their young, soon become immune to.
The long term/permanent solution to stopping malaria in Africa and Southeast Asia is infrastructure changes which improve water drainage around cities and roads and dam removals.
Also more sewage and water treatment plants and sewer infrastructure to houses etc.
Africa nad Asia should generate electricity from natural gas powered plants and not enormous hydro-power dams which stagnate river systems and destroy river fisheries/fish migrations.
on how to prevent malaria is
The Golden Fountain, by van der Kroon.
I have been bitten by malaria mosquitos recently.
I inoculate myself each day by drinking one
glass of my own perfect medicine,
my own urine.
It is free and it works better than any other treatment.
Regressives ignore the facts, too. At peak DDT use in 1960, 4 million people a year died from malaria, worldwide. After DDT use was banned on cotton crops in the U.S. in 1972, that rate declined. Today, fewer than 900,000 people a year die from malaria. Largely without DDT, malaria deaths have been reduced by 75%.
Worse for the case for DDT, malaria deaths declined in almost lock-step with the reduction in DDT.
DDT costs more than bednets, and DDT is much less effective. DDT is an easy, poison-Africa-to-save-it kind of short-term solution, but DDT does not fight malaria directly, and it is only effective if there are good programs to improve medical care. That's where we need to invest.
Today, fewer than 900,000 people die from malaria every year. We have at least a billion more people on the planet, and the death toll has been cut more than 50%.
Malaria was rampant when DDT use was slowed (it never stopped, it was never banned in Africa); malaria is much less prevalent and much less deadly today, largely without DDT.
Two things you need:
A white plate.
Liquid dish soap, the kind you set on the back of your sink.
Set the white plate outside or inside or both. Add about a 1/4 cup of water to a drop of liquid dish soap and pour it into the white plate. You can use more or less water depending on your plate. Fill the plate as full of the mixture as you can
The next day you will have a plate of dead bugs and mosquitoes. You don't see them all, some fly away before they die. And the more/longer you set the mixture out the more you kill.
I now set a disposable plate inside a glass plate because it is easier to clean up each day.
My grandson seems to attract mosquitoes. I had gotten rid of those outside, but two mornings in a row he woke up with more bites on him. I set the white plate with the liquid dish soap in the kitchen and left a small light on near it since light attracts flying bugs. The next morning there was one dead mosquito in the 'killer water'.
I use Joy dish soap for this because that is what I was told to use.
First shot of DDT goes to Lee. Sounds like he could use a stiff one.
BTW, funny guy, it was Richard Nixon who led the charge to ban DDT in the early 70s. That frickin hippy also CREATED the EPA! To wit (so I don't look like some know-nothing who posts his idiotic opinions as facts): On February 10th, 1970, almost a year before he founded the EPA, President Nixon announced, “we have taken action to phase out the use of DDT and other hard pesticides.” Look it up. You sound like you've got some time on your hands.