Uganda to O-town to the T-dot
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Last week as I was flying to Uganda, East Africa, I sat beside a mother and her 18-month-old daughter. The woman was returning home to introduce her child who had been born in the UK. As we spoke about our plans for our respective trips, she told me about how excited she was at her family meeting her young baby and she also said she was concerned about her baby getting sick with Malaria. In silence, I glanced over at her little girl who was sitting on the ground and playing with her mother’s headphones. As it should be she was completely lost in the bliss of being a baby but the dangers of her contracting Malaria were very real.
After a quick trip to Uganda, I am now in Ottawa on my way to Toronto for World Malaria Day on Friday April 25th. In the days leading up to this first ever-global event, the Canadian Red Cross was proud to announce that along with the generous support of the Canadian government, the founders of Music World, Kroum and Eva Pindoff were going to match dollar to dollar of up to a million dollars that is donated by Canadians to the Malaria Bites campaign. It was also exciting to meet Firdaus Kharas the genius behind the HIV/AIDS PSAs, the Three Amigos. If you haven’t seen them, you can find all 5 spots on youtube.com.
Along those lines, Firdaus has created these brilliant commercials for Malaria prevention and awareness with the very funny characters of Buzz and Bite, two mosquitoes on the hunt to infect people with Malaria parasites. The 30 PSAs will be available worldwide and they have been translated into 40 languages. Buzz and Bite were produced in part with the support of the CRC and have received support from someone who is truly respected worldwide, the Most Reverend Desmond Tutu.
Firdaus produced these spots out of his own time. He volunteered to bring awareness on something he feels more people need to know about. He is passionate about the message and is active in spreading the message. And it is so inspiring to see so many people joining the Malaria Bites facebook group and to have so many supporters across the country galvanizing as a community to affect change.
I have no idea how to express how good it feels to be a part of something that is bigger than myself. As foreign as Malaria might sound, it is such a big disease, which absolutely requires all of our participation. I hope that you will join me in Toronto on Thursday and Friday as the Red Cross launches events to commemorate World Malaria Day. To borrow a phrase from U.S. Presidential Democratic nominee Barack Obama, ‘Yes We Can’.
posted by KB at 10:10 AM 0 comments
Thursday, April 10, 2008
30 Seconds and Counting
It’s been a few months since I traveled to Mali, West Africa for the launch of the Canadian Red Cross Malaria Bites campaign. Red Cross distributed over 1.8 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and other international partners provided vaccinations, vitamin A and deworming medicine for children under the age of 5 - a milestone many kids in Africa don’t live to celebrate.
Recently the show “American Idol” had its annual “Idol Gives Back” event. During the show, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to buy 20 million anti-malarial bed nets and oil company Exxon Mobil separately announced a $10 million donation. Although these generous donations will make a significant difference in the fight against malaria, the need is still great.
Forty per cent of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. And in addition to the human toil, the disease also affects the economy and productivity of the countries that are already at risk of extreme poverty.
Since being diagnosed with the disease last summer, I’ve slowly started to feel like myself again. I used to function on four hours of sleep but while I was recovering from cerebral malaria I found myself in bed for nearly 12 hours a day. Living in one of the richest countries in the world, I’ve been able to seek treatment that the majority of those living in malaria hotspots around the world would never have access to.
Currently I’m editing the video I shot when I was in Mali. Seeing the faces of the mothers with their children as they lined up for the nets and hearing the babies crying after their vaccinations brings back a lot of memories. The love and pride that each mother showed for their child was joy at its simplest form and to think of the heartache that these same mothers are still venerable to experiencing because of the looming shadow of malaria has been extremely frustrating.
But as April 25 approaches, it’s exciting to know that the day has now been changed to World Malaria Day instead of Africa Malaria Day. I think that’s significant because the disease is a global responsibility. Since malaria is such a complex disease it will take the effort of every single one of us as global citizens to combat it and to prevent it from continuing to kill one African child every 30 seconds.
In the time that it’s taken you to read this blog, malaria has already claimed the lives of at least five more children.
Posted for Nam Kiwanuka
Last week as I was flying to Uganda, East Africa, I sat beside a mother and her 18-month-old daughter. The woman was returning home to introduce her child who had been born in the UK. As we spoke about our plans for our respective trips, she told me about how excited she was at her family meeting her young baby and she also said she was concerned about her baby getting sick with Malaria. In silence, I glanced over at her little girl who was sitting on the ground and playing with her mother’s headphones. As it should be she was completely lost in the bliss of being a baby but the dangers of her contracting Malaria were very real.
After a quick trip to Uganda, I am now in Ottawa on my way to Toronto for World Malaria Day on Friday April 25th. In the days leading up to this first ever-global event, the Canadian Red Cross was proud to announce that along with the generous support of the Canadian government, the founders of Music World, Kroum and Eva Pindoff were going to match dollar to dollar of up to a million dollars that is donated by Canadians to the Malaria Bites campaign. It was also exciting to meet Firdaus Kharas the genius behind the HIV/AIDS PSAs, the Three Amigos. If you haven’t seen them, you can find all 5 spots on youtube.com.
Along those lines, Firdaus has created these brilliant commercials for Malaria prevention and awareness with the very funny characters of Buzz and Bite, two mosquitoes on the hunt to infect people with Malaria parasites. The 30 PSAs will be available worldwide and they have been translated into 40 languages. Buzz and Bite were produced in part with the support of the CRC and have received support from someone who is truly respected worldwide, the Most Reverend Desmond Tutu.
Firdaus produced these spots out of his own time. He volunteered to bring awareness on something he feels more people need to know about. He is passionate about the message and is active in spreading the message. And it is so inspiring to see so many people joining the Malaria Bites facebook group and to have so many supporters across the country galvanizing as a community to affect change.
I have no idea how to express how good it feels to be a part of something that is bigger than myself. As foreign as Malaria might sound, it is such a big disease, which absolutely requires all of our participation. I hope that you will join me in Toronto on Thursday and Friday as the Red Cross launches events to commemorate World Malaria Day. To borrow a phrase from U.S. Presidential Democratic nominee Barack Obama, ‘Yes We Can’.
posted by KB at 10:10 AM 0 comments
Thursday, April 10, 2008
30 Seconds and Counting
It’s been a few months since I traveled to Mali, West Africa for the launch of the Canadian Red Cross Malaria Bites campaign. Red Cross distributed over 1.8 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and other international partners provided vaccinations, vitamin A and deworming medicine for children under the age of 5 - a milestone many kids in Africa don’t live to celebrate.
Recently the show “American Idol” had its annual “Idol Gives Back” event. During the show, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to buy 20 million anti-malarial bed nets and oil company Exxon Mobil separately announced a $10 million donation. Although these generous donations will make a significant difference in the fight against malaria, the need is still great.
Forty per cent of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. And in addition to the human toil, the disease also affects the economy and productivity of the countries that are already at risk of extreme poverty.
Since being diagnosed with the disease last summer, I’ve slowly started to feel like myself again. I used to function on four hours of sleep but while I was recovering from cerebral malaria I found myself in bed for nearly 12 hours a day. Living in one of the richest countries in the world, I’ve been able to seek treatment that the majority of those living in malaria hotspots around the world would never have access to.
Currently I’m editing the video I shot when I was in Mali. Seeing the faces of the mothers with their children as they lined up for the nets and hearing the babies crying after their vaccinations brings back a lot of memories. The love and pride that each mother showed for their child was joy at its simplest form and to think of the heartache that these same mothers are still venerable to experiencing because of the looming shadow of malaria has been extremely frustrating.
But as April 25 approaches, it’s exciting to know that the day has now been changed to World Malaria Day instead of Africa Malaria Day. I think that’s significant because the disease is a global responsibility. Since malaria is such a complex disease it will take the effort of every single one of us as global citizens to combat it and to prevent it from continuing to kill one African child every 30 seconds.
In the time that it’s taken you to read this blog, malaria has already claimed the lives of at least five more children.
Posted for Nam Kiwanuka
Labels: africa, bed nets, canadian red cross, international work, malaria bites, Nam Kiwanuk
posted by Alison Frehlich at 1:37 PM
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