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.