Kingston Sleeps Out, Stands Out & Rocks Out Malaria!
KINGSTON SLEEPS OUT, STANDS OUT AND ROCKS OUT MALARIA!
And then they will Bead it Up!
Kingston: The Buy-A-Net Malaria Prevention Group takes over Confederation Basin to mark World Malaria Day, on Sunday, April 25th, with a “Sleep out” and a “Rock-Out” to commemorate this important day of global awareness.
April 25, 2010 is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world. World Malaria Day is an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn about the devastating consequences of the disease.
This year, communities around the world are “Sleeping Out to End Malaria”. The Kingston event runs from 1:00 – 8:00 pm. Buy-A-Net encourages citizens of all ages to attend this day to demonstrate both their determination and optimism that the battle against Malaria can be won.
A full day’s program of varied musical entertainment featuring Andrea Gauster, Beautiful Inferno, Ottawa-based Chasing Curiosity, Earth Wind and Haggis, Singer song-writer Jim Tidman , and to close the show Spread the Secret Participants will also be treated to the performance, “A Malaria Story” by the Kingston based, youth theatre company, The Not So Amateur Amateurs. Face painting will be available for the younger supporters.
Buy-A-Net will also be encouraging Kingstonians to “Bead Up Malaria”. Made possible through a recent partnership with “Bead For Life”, one-of-a-kind handmade beads will be on sale with all proceeds going to the Buy-A-Net Malaria Prevention Group. Thirty beads will be sold for $7 – the price of one bed net.
Bead For Life (beadforlife.org) is an organization that reduces extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful beads, which are, in turn, sold around the world. The beads thus become income, food, medicine, school fees and hope.
Launched in 2004, Buy-A-Net is Canada’s first volunteer-driven, charitable organization that seeks to prevent deaths from Malaria in Africa one country at a time. The nation of Uganda was chosen as the first target country of the campaign, whose slogan “7 Bucks, Buy-A-Net, Save a life” provides advocacy and awareness about malaria as well as raises much-needed funds for the procurement of long-lasting, insecticide treated bed nets and anti-malaria medicine. In partnership with community-based groups, the nets are distributed free of charge, one village at a time. Children and pregnant women in Africa are most vulnerable to malaria. Malaria takes a child’s life every 30 seconds, and 50 Million pregnant women are at risk of malaria resulting in poor health, and maternal and neonatal death.
For more information on Buy-A-Net and malaria prevention, please visit www.buyanet.ca.
-30-
Contact: Joanne Langlois (613) 540-1202
Kathy McPhail Joins in the Fight on Malaria with This “Voluntour” Report
“It seems for most Manitobans that summer sort of just slipped away but for me, this is a summer I will never forget. I was able to spend two weeks at the first of August with a Canadian volunteer organization called Buy-A-Net in Uganda, Africa. I could not have done so without the support of the RHA Board of Directors for my request to be out of country (and at the time they were approving my request we had no idea what level of H1N1 would be occurring) so I cannot thank them enough. As well, the support of the Senior Management team in covering for me also enabled this dream to take shape.
Buy-A-Net is an organization that was started about six years ago by a couple of nurses (Gail Fones, from Manitoba, is one of those and her lead partner from Kingston Ontario, Debra Lefebvre). They are committed to stop Malaria one village at a time with the group’s campaign of Stop the Bite, Stop Malaria.
I was one of a group of 10 volunteers on this trip and it was made even more special as I traveled with one of my daughters who was also part of this work. We worked with community leaders in areas identified by Buy-A-Net in the less fortunate areas of Kampala, a city of 1.5 million and also in a few villages in rural Uganda.
In the designated areas, our team along with local leaders registered homes one by one and assisted local trained Ugandans to provide group education sessions about Malaria, the etiology, signs, symptoms and prevention methods which include the medicated malaria net. We also monitored homes to ensure the nets were hung and being used by priority persons within the homes and community leaders evaluate the success of the Buy-A-Net projects. One net per home is distributed and yet every 30 seconds, a child dies in Uganda with Malaria. The nets are made possible by Canadians’ donations to this effort. A net costs $6 which is not much to us but is about 14,000 Ugandan shillings and far from reach for many of the Ugandans we met.
We also had the opportunity to immunize children in one of the rural villages where Buy-A-Net has a presence, visit two schools, one a rural boarding school and one within the city of Kampala. These have made a lasting impression on me personally. They have so few to no resources for the children and with our kids being able to pick up the lists of things for their new school year, I think of these children again with near to nothing, not even a lunch for their 12-hour school day!
We also visited Mulago Hospital which is a 2,000-bed facility within the city. I would love to share these learnings. Again, they seem able to achieve much with very very little. The ethical decisions that nurses and physicians face daily are so overwhelming.
Yet, in spite of many of these situations, I was awestruck by the overall spirit of happiness, warmth, and appreciation the Ugandan people shared with us. The kids are amazing and love to sing, play games with you or cuddle, just like all kids. That is the most lasting impression I will keep with me: the wonderful people and their spirit!
If you would like to read about Buy-A-Net’s work they can be found at www.buyanet.ca or I would love to take an evening and share my pictures and stories with any of you or with groups who may be interested. For me, this has been a nursing experience of a career!”
Kathy McPhail
Chief Executive Officer
Regional Health Authority – Central Manitoba Inc.
Buy-A-Net Board Member Featured in Kingston’s Profile Magazine
Buy-A-Net board member and volunteer featured recently in Kingston’s Profile magazine.
Joanne Langlois spoke eloquently of the importance of the malaria prevention work of our group in Uganda.
Her trip with daughter Emma to help net villages last fall renewed her commitment to spread the word as an informed advocate and promote the support Buy-A-Net.
To obtain full article click on www.profilekingston.com
