Malaria Awareness Campaigns

Awareness events are inarguably important means of making certain subjects better known with the general public. The Invisible Children campaign brought about many people's knowledge on the child soldier situation while films such as Hotel Rwanda also educated audiences on other world issues often not discussed in cushioned American life styles. AIDS awareness campaigns have been working hard to keep the general public informed about the AIDS crisis and how they can work to help prevent the spread of AIDS, largely through their donations to such educational and humanitarian organizations. World Vision recently launched another event to raise awareness about a hugely relevant problem to many third world countries-malaria.

A "Night of Nets" is described as a great way to get your organization, church, or school involved in making a difference in malaria affected countries. Malaria, which is reported to kill more than seven hundred fifty thousand children under the age of five (and many more individuals over that age) every single year, can be largely prevented through different means. Malaria is spread by the female anopheles mosquito (the mosquito acts as a vector for the disease) and the number of dangerous mosquito bites can be reduced simply through the addition of a bednet over a child's bed while he sleeps at night. These bednets cost only a mere six dollars, and World Vision encourages those who hold a "Night of Nets" to raise funds for such bednets to be sent to affected African nations.

The organization for a "Night of Nets" events is left largely up to the imagination of the organizer. World Vision suggests gathering local musicians and artists for the event to provide entertainment (and to possibly increase the number of participants); these events can serve as great opportunities for such artists to get involved with your community and make a difference in the world. The basic premise for a "Night of Nets" is to get a large group of individuals together (such as a church youth group) and to all sleep outside under nets for an evening. Hopefully those involved in the event will be able to raise support from sponsors in order to actually have a monetary donation to send to organizations such as World Vision, but even if only a small monetary contribution is made, the participants will still become more aware of a huge problem in the world today.

Doing something about the malaria problem does not have to mean synthesizing a new anti-malaria drug. While such inventions are needed, action against malaria can be much simpler. Consider organizing a "Night of Nets" for your own town in order to raise money and awareness.