Churches malaria scheme

Malaria is one killer your church can stop.

It kills a child in Africa every minute and it is responsible for a third of all child deaths in Sierra Leone. What’s even more shocking is that this cruel disease is entirely preventable, and yet only one in three children in Sierra Leone sleeps under a bed net.

Less than a third of children in Sierra Leone sleep under a mosquito net

We want to put a stop to these needless deaths, and we know how to do it. But we need your help.

We’re looking for at least 100 UK churches to help us to run a life-saving malaria control project in Sierra Leone.

By pledging to raise £500 by 1 July 2013, each church will fund the work of one malaria control volunteer, like Fatmata, for one year.

Fatmata, 24, from Kenema District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, has seen two of her children die from malaria – including her eight-month-old daughter.

She says, ‘I know now that my children would have lived if I had taken them to the hospital earlier.’ That’s why Fatmata is determined to give accurate health information to other mothers in her community, so that they don’t make the same mistake and suffer as she has.

Your church’s £500 donation would provide the training and equipment needed for a malaria control volunteer to save lives by giving communities essential health education, such as:

• how to spot the symptoms of malaria in themselves and others – particularly in young children

• how to get a malaria test

• how to seek urgent medical treatment

• how to prevent malaria by using treated bed nets correctly and stopping mosquitos from breeding in stagnant water around the house.

Each church will receive a poster to publicise their commitment and quarterly updates to keep up to date with the project’s progress.