World Malaria Day

Since today is World Malaria Day, here are some notes from the first Action Summit to End Malaria that I was at last week. Kt, our 12 year old, is doing a big school project on malaria so it was a great opportunity for us to attend together. Special thanks for World Vision for hosting the event. Big points first, then some other notes.

1: 2,000 children die every day from malaria. 1 every 40 seconds.

2: There are proven, effective and inexpensive solutions that are working. Second to childhood immunizations, these malaria solutions are the best return on investment in the fight on global poverty. The four solutions that must be implemented together: long lasting insectiside bed nets [LLIN], indoor spraying, anti malaria medication, intermittent preventative treatment in pregnancy.

3: The fight on malaria is working. There have been 1M lives saved in the last 10 years. We must finish to eradication - otherwise malaria will come back in the next generation even more powerfully [due to acquired immunity].

Other notes:
+ Hidden victims:
contributes to child trafficking : parents sent their kids out of the specific geography because otherwise they would contract malaria but they have to find 'work
contributes to child soldiers : they are safer with the army than contracting malaria
kids that were born with low birth weight due to malaria infected mother eventually had low growth rate and were ostracized by community
local community used mixture of cow dung and chalk as an insecticide but kids were getting sick and losing sight and hearing from the mixture
+ there is a vaccine in the final stages of development
+ the bednets and indoor spraying work because 90% of the mosquitoes that spread the parasite live indoors and bite indoors.
+ the crowd and speakers were major movers and shakers about malaria. lots of the crowd spent time in Africa doing NPO/NGO work.
+ "Poverty doesn't cause terrorism. It causes despair which terrorists exploit." - Mark Green, managing director of Malaria No More
+ Zanzibar, Tanzania successes against malaria
+ 300K bednets delivered to Zambia - from start to finish took 3 months.
+ The first day of the Summit was dedicated to information. The second day [which we skipped] was dedicated to lobbying - meaning actually going into to congressional offices and talking with elected officials. That would have been an interesting experience.
+ Kt and I had dinner at the same table as one of World Vision's doctors and a PhD candidate in entomology specifically studying mosquitoes. As you can imagine, the conversation was on another plane. Takeaway - there are not enough entomologists for the field of infectious disease research.
+ My daughter was the youngest person there. Lots of people wanted to know why she was there. Her project got lots of questions.
+ All day session on Wednesday was held at Top of the Town reception center. I don't know who World Vision knows but....
+ Evening session was at Arlington Temple United Methodist Church - a church that sits on top of a gas station.
+ Read up on Pastor Keith Stewart's journey including a World Vision trip. Remarkable story of a church being transformed. [I also heard him speak almost exactly a year ago at Catalyst West 09. @mattmaloy and @jmldad might remember our global poverty lunch...]
+ We are called to create the right kind of environments for our kids. This day was a big win in that area.

For more info - see http://www.endmalaria.org