The Big Day

March 29, 2010
Tomorrow is the big day – my colleague Sylvie Zangger, program officer for the Canadian Red Cross malaria program, and I will board our plane and head to Africa – more specifically, to Burundi. The Canadian Red Cross will be distributing over 521,000 life-saving mosquito nets there. This will be my first time participating.

I’ve been working as part of the communications team for Malaria Bites since it launched in 2007, although the Canadian Red Cross malaria program itself has been doing great work since 2003. I’m thrilled that I’ll be able to see first-hand how our work is making a difference in communities in Africa. The Canadian Red Cross malaria program has distributed over 6 million nets in Africa so far, and trained over 25,000 African Red Cross volunteers, thanks to the generosity of Canadians.

For this campaign, a big thank you must also go out to the Belgium Red Cross, whose funding has allowed this distribution to be as large and far-reaching as it is.

I can’t wait to get there and share my experiences with all you!