Noth­ing But Nets is a grass­roots cam­paign to save lives by pre­vent­ing malaria, a lead­ing killer of chil­dren in Africa. While the UN Foun­da­tion has been work­ing with the UN to fight malaria for years, it was a col­umn that Rick Reilly wrote about malaria in Sports Illus­trated, chal­leng­ing each of his read­ers to donate at least $10 for the pur­chase of an anti-malaria bed nets — and the incred­i­ble response from thou­sands of Amer­i­cans across the coun­try — that led to the cre­ation the Noth­ing But Nets campaign.

Malaria Kills

Malaria is a dis­ease caused by the blood par­a­site Plas­mod­ium, which is trans­mit­ted by mos­qui­toes. Malaria, from the Medieval Ital­ian words mala aria or “bad air,” infects more than 500 mil­lion peo­ple a year and kills more than a mil­lion; one per­son dies about every 30 seconds.

Malaria is par­tic­u­larly dev­as­tat­ing in Africa, where it is a lead­ing killer of chil­dren. In addi­tion to being home to the dead­liest strain of malaria and the mos­quito best equipped to trans­mit the dis­ease, many areas in Africa lack the proper infra­struc­ture and resources to fight back.

The dis­ease is a self-perpetuating prob­lem with large-scale impact on soci­eties and economies. Malaria accounts for up to half of all hos­pi­tal admis­sions and out­pa­tient vis­its in Africa. In addi­tion to the bur­den on the health sys­tem, malaria ill­ness and death cost Africa approx­i­mately $12 bil­lion a year in lost pro­duc­tiv­ity. The effects per­me­ate almost every sec­tor. Malaria increases school absen­teeism, decreases tourism, inhibits for­eign invest­ment, and even affects the type of crops that are grown.

Malaria is Both Pre­ventable and Treatable

Malaria is both a pre­ventable and treat­able dis­ease. It can be pre­vented by giv­ing fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als insecticide-treated bed nets to sleep under and tak­ing steps to kill mos­qui­toes where they breed and when they enter houses to feed at night. At the same time, anti-malarial drugs such as artemisinin and other com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies that are widely avail­able can treat malaria before it becomes deadly.

Malaria has been brought under con­trol and even elim­i­nated in many parts of Asia, Europe, and the Amer­i­cas. Yet in Africa, with increas­ing drug resis­tance and strug­gling health sys­tems, malaria infec­tions have actu­ally increased dur­ing the last three decades.

Bed Nets

Despite the mag­ni­tude of the prob­lem, there is a sim­ple and cost-effective solu­tion to pre­vent malaria deaths. For just $10, we can pur­chase a bed net, deliver it to a fam­ily, and explain its use. Bed nets work by cre­at­ing a pro­tec­tive bar­rier against mos­qui­toes at night, when the vast major­ity of trans­mis­sions occur. A fam­ily of four can sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net, safe from malaria, for up to four years. The ben­e­fits of bed nets extend even fur­ther than the fam­ily. When enough nets are used, the insec­ti­cide used to deter mos­qui­toes makes entire com­mu­ni­ties safer; includ­ing even those indi­vid­u­als who do not have nets.

Although $10 for a bed net may not sound like much, the cost makes them out of reach for most peo­ple at risk of malaria, many of whom sur­vive on less than $1 a day. Nets are a sim­ple, life-saving solu­tion, but we need your help to pro­vide them to those in need.

How Noth­ing But Nets works

Noth­ing But Nets is pow­ered by your pas­sion; it works because you do! Cre­ate a com­mu­nity for your church, school, team, or fam­ily and friends. Together, you can spread the word, raise funds, and share your stories.

With the money you raise, the UN Foun­da­tion and its part­ners work with the Measles Ini­tia­tive — one of the most suc­cess­ful vac­ci­na­tion efforts ever under­taken — to pur­chase bed nets and dis­trib­ute them in coun­tries and com­mu­ni­ties in great­est need.

Using its proven dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem — which in just five years has vac­ci­nated nearly a quar­ter bil­lion chil­dren — the Measles Ini­tia­tive will dis­trib­ute bed nets along with measles vac­ci­na­tions and other med­i­cines to at-risk coun­tries. It’s an effec­tive and cost-efficient way to get the nets to the peo­ple who need them.

How You Can Help

At NothingButNets.net you will find resources on malaria, toolk­its that you can down­load to help you raise aware­ness and orga­nize fundrais­ing events, and the abil­ity to cre­ate or join a Netraiser team.

Sign up as a Netraiser Team Cap­tain to recruit your friends, fam­ily and co-workers to help sup­port you in rais­ing money for bed nets to pre­vent malaria in Africa. As a Team Cap­tain, you can invite peo­ple to join your team so they too can ask their friends to spon­sor them within your team or sim­ply ask for sponsors.

And, check out the suc­cess of our first-ever World Malaria Day!

Work­ing together, we can cover Africa with life­sav­ing bed nets.

Web­site:

www.nothingbutnets.net

Sources: nothingbutnets.net

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