Nothing But Nets Raises $18 Million in First Year

from the Christian Post

By Michelle A. Vu

Nothing But Nets, a popular anti-malaria campaign founded by The United Methodist Church and its partners, announced Thursday that it raised more than $18 million in its first year.

The amount was raised as of Dec. 31, 2007, from the contribution of some 60,000 donors, according to campaign partner United Nations Foundation. Funds were used to purchase and distribute insecticide-treated sleeping nets for families in Africa.

"It's just phenomenal what we've been able to accomplish in such a short time," said Bishop Thomas Bickerton, United Methodist spokesman for the campaign, according to the United Methodist News Service (UMNS). "It's been more like a movement than a campaign.”

Donations include more than $9.4 million from individuals, $3 million in matching funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and $5.7 million contributed through “Idol Gives Back” – a two-night “American Idol” television special benefiting organizations that help children in poverty.

Each net costs only $10, including the fee to deliver and have someone train recipient families on how to use it. The campaign says nets are the most cost-efficient way to fight malaria, the preventable disease that kills 20 percent of African children under the age of five each year.

“The reality is that we can save a child's life for such a small amount of money, and that message has really touched people's hearts and compelled them to get engaged," Bickerton said.

More than 700,000 nets have been distributed by Nothing But Nets in the Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Chad, Mali, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nothing But Nets partners include the UMC, the U.N. Foundation, Sports Illustrated, the National Basketball Association's NBA Cares, Major League Soccer, the Mark J. Gordon Foundation and VH-1.

Malaria, a preventable mosquito-borne disease, kills about 1 million people a year with about 90 percent of the mortality being children, according to the campaign. Death and illness caused by malaria also cost Africa an estimated $12 billion a year in lost productivity.

In 2005, President Bush, a member of the United Methodist Church, launched a $1.2 billion, five-year U.S.-funded program to cut malaria deaths in half in the hardest-hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa – where more than 80 percent of malaria cases occur.

“The disease (malaria) keeps sick workers home, schoolyards quiet, communities in mourning," Bush said in Tanzania during his five-nation African tour in February, according to The Associated Press.

"The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable.”

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) provides insecticide-treated bed nets, treatment, and social programs to hard-hit African nations to fight malaria.

"It is unacceptable to people here in Africa, who see their families devastated and economies crippled,” Bush said. “It is unacceptable to people in the United States, who believe every human life has value."

PMI will launch prevention and treatment programs in eight countries – Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, and Zambia – in fiscal year 2008. The program has helped more than 25 million people.

The United States will mark the second annual Malaria Awareness Day on April 25, alongside those in Africa who will be observing Africa Malaria Day.