Malaria: The Modern Plague

You’ve probably heard a lot about plagues over the past few days, but I hope you’ll take three minutes to learn about a very real one facing half of the world’s population today. (If you don’t have three minutes, click here.)

Six years ago the Reform Movement formalized our support of and partnership with Nothing But Nets, a campaign of the UN Foundation that is solely tasked with ridding the world of Malaria – a disease transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. Malaria kills more than 600,000 people a year and cripples Africa’s economy; yet it is preventable and its eradication is within reach in our lifetime. Since the Reform Movement joined forces with Nothing But Nets, we’ve raised more than $800,000 for the campaign, have sent more than 75,000 bed nets to Africa, and – yes – we’ve actually saved lives.

Dayenu, right? Wrong. Our work hasn’t been enough. A child still dies every 60 seconds from a mosquito bite.

I’d love for you to keep supporting the “Send a Net, Save a Life” campaign by donating $10, but I’d rather you take a minute of your time to send a letter (that we’ve already written for you!) to your Senators and Representative. Just enter your name and address and we will take care of the rest. It’s that easy to make a difference, I promise.

Click here to send that letter. Are you in NFTY? Then click here to send a cooler letter.

We’re asking Congress to fund the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the level of support they have committed to in the past. If we don’t ask, Congress might not feel that they will be held accountable if they were to defund the Initiative.  Even though this portion makes up less than 1% of our budget, foreign aid always gets put on the chopping block in budget talks. The biggest risk we take is not sending this letter at all. Millions of people are counting on you, and it really takes only moments.

So let’s join together and say enough is NEVER enough! It’s time we stop standing idly by while others suffer. We have an obligation, let’s act together – now.

Isaac Nuell is the Religious Action Center's Manager of Congregational Social Action; he oversees program support, resource development, and strategic partnerships with other advocacy organizations.