Nothing But Nets Blog

As Director of Nothing But Nets, I get to meet a lot of inspiring Americans doing amazing things to save lives by sending $10 nets to prevent malaria, a disease that still kills a child in Africa every 60 seconds. I've met a 13-year old Boy Scout who hiked 100 miles to raise money and awareness, an 8-year old who became the youngest girl to ever swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco in order to raise money to send hundreds of nets, and a fashion designer who has created a line of net-inspired accessories to send nets and save lives.

Motherhood - from start to finish - is miraculous. For me, being a mom (I have a 2 1/2 year old and one on the way) is incredibly joyful, humbling, empowering, tiring and... frightening. Frightening because I - like all moms and dads - love and cherish my son and daughter-to-be so greatly and the reality is that I have limited control over their health, happiness and future.

You did it! You helped send 20,525 life-saving bed nets to families across sub-Saharan Africa in honor of World Malaria Day. And just like I asked, you made me give until it hurt by meeting my matching gift challenge. Ponying up the full $20,000 is the best hit my wallet's ever taken.

Malaria is preventable, treatable and curable. Yet it continues to have a devastating impact across Africa. For more than a decade, ExxonMobil has been working to help drive lasting change and build a better future for communities in the region by investing in the fight against malaria.

Let us say thank you. Thank you to everyone who helped make this World Malaria Day a success. Thank you to everyone who has devoted time, effort, energy, or money to help protect families from malaria. Thank you to the families across Africa who shared their stories of how malaria has touched their lives. Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the buzz that together, we can end malaria deaths.

This World Malaria Day, we need your help more than ever.
Since 2006, Nothing But Nets has created the world’s largest grassroots network dedicated to keeping families in sub-Saharan Africa safe from malaria. The campaign has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to send nets and save lives from malaria, a disease spread by a single mosquito bite.

Every 60 seconds a child dies from malaria. Bed nets are a simple, cost-effective way to prevent children and families from being bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes while they sleep. To end malaria deaths in this generation, we need your help!

Sportswriter Rick Reilly helped launch the Nothing But Nets campaign in 2006 with a column in Sports Illustrated. This World Malaria Day, he is teaming up with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry like you've never seen them before to fight deadly malaria.

Watch or set your DVRs to 8pm ET/PT tonight, when HBO premieres the original film Mary and Martha, telling the emotional story of two mothers’ battle against malaria. Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn star as Mary and Martha, two women who bond over their shared experience with the disease.

What an amazing season this has been for Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry. He has always been known for his shooting, but in the last game of the season he launched himself into NBA history books by breaking Ray Allen's record for most threes in a season with a whopping 272 total three-point shots made! 

On Friday April 5, Nothing But Nets participated in a 1,000-minute digital rally celebrating the progress of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a look forward to post 2015 goals. As part of the movement to inspire action to build a better world, Nothing But Nets hosted a Twitter party focused on progress in the fight to end malaria.

Some of you may have 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 the world’s population today.

It’s one thing to hear about a scary, serious global health problem like malaria on TV or in the news. It’s not a disease that we have much experience with anymore in the United States.

What do you get when you put yoga mat distributors, WNBA champions, major corporations, religious organizations, and teenage activists in a room for two days? A recipe for success in the fight against malaria. The Nothing Buts Nets Partner and Champion Summit celebrated the innovative alliances that have kept our campaign strong, while brainstorming strategies to move Nothing But Nets forward.

WWE Divas Natalya and Alicia Fox joined Nothing But Nets in Rwanda in an effort to help spread awareness about malaria and deliver life-saving bed nets to refugees. The trip was part of the Nothing But Nets partnership with WWE. Take an exclusive look at footage from the trip!

Call us biased, but we believe we have the world’s greatest supporters. Six years ago, a child died every 30 seconds of malaria. Now, it’s every 60 seconds. A huge part of that incredible progress is thanks to our dedicated partners. In the past six years, we have brought together the world’s largest group of partners and grassroots supporters to send nets to save lives from this deadly disease.

Sometimes you meet people that you know you’ll never forget, even if you don’t ever see them again. That happened yesterday during our trip to Gihembe refugee camp with our newest campaign partner, rock band Dawes. Gihembe is an overcrowded camp of more than 14,000 people living atop a hill in northern Rwanda near the Ugandan border. We met an amazing and resilient family of eight from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 1996, the family fled to Gihembe to escape war after their father was killed in the violence.

Laurence believed that it was our responsibility to help those who have limited means of improving their situations on their own. He hosted fundraisers for charities like Nothing But Nets and the United Nations Foundation, throughout the Dexter-Ann Arbor community.

Nyirabigeyo, a 20-year-old Congolese refugee, shares just about everything with her first child, a 4-month-old baby boy named Shema. Her tiny mud home in Rwanda’s Kiziba Refugee Camp, her bed, her love. But there’s on thing mother and son do not have in common: malaria.

My unforgettable visit today to Gihembe Refugee Camp in Rwanda with the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign reinforced two things. One: Our collective work to fight malaria is paying off. Two: We still have a lot of work to do to end malaria deaths for good.
More than 14,000 people live in Gihembe in northern Rwanda, although it’s difficult to call these mud houses perched on terraced hillsides home.