Nothing But Nets Blog

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.

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.

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.

On a recent trip to Tanzania with the United Nations Foundation, I visited churches, clergy, communities and government uniting in the fight against malaria—and winning.

Tomorrow, December 1, is World AIDS Day 2012, a day for all of us to consider the toll this disease has taken worldwide and celebrate the progress made against HIV/AIDS. The United Nations Foundation’s partners at The Global Fund are leaders in the fight against AIDS, providing more than 4 million people critical antiretroviral treatments. The Global Fund’s public-private partnership helps finance $22.9 billion worth of projects in 151 countries to stop AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Happy Halloween! Have we got a spooky story for you. When 12-year-old Courtney Bell first learned about Nothing But Nets in 2008, she couldn’t believe what she saw: kids around the world could get sick—or even die—from a simple mosquito bite.

“We really wanted to do something to help out,” she said, “One net makes a difference in someone’s life.”

Houston Dynamo forward Macoumba “Mac” Kandji, 27, is excited to be part of Nothing But Nets night at this Saturday’s Major League Soccer game between the Dynamo and the Philadelphia Union. The United Nations Foundation’sNothing But Nets campaign has joined forces with athletes from the very beginning, partnering with MLS W.O.R.K.S. to reach new audiences in the fight against malaria.

A United Nations Foundation delegation recently visited communities across Tanzania, from the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the shores of Zanzibar, on an observation trip to see how faith communities and governments can work together to treat malaria and stop its spread.

Adventure seekers know the village of Marangu, Tanzania as the gateway to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. However, before you reach the trailhead, veer to the left onto a winding, rutted, dirt road, and you’ll discover a lesser-known corner of Marangu.

This is home to Ngaruma Parish, a community of 700 or so Lutheran worshippers, and ground zero in Tanzania’s fight against malaria. Mosquitoes do not naturally thrive in the lush, cool, mountain region. But in the past decade or so, factors including climate change and increasingly mobile citizens have helped spread the deadly disease to a community lacking both immunity and familiarity with malaria prevention tools such as insecticide-treated bed nets.

The fight against malaria touches many people. Health workers, families caring for loved ones and the ill themselves are the first many might imagine. But malaria affects whole communities. As a result, entire communities band together to help prevent this deadly disease.

Dr. Paul Spiegel with our partner United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) visited the UN Foundation last week to brief the Nothing But Nets team on the current difficulties facing refugees in South Sudan.

UNHCR aims to provide two nets for every family of five. One hurdle is that many people come from areas where malaria is not a major threat, so they do not have natural immunities to malaria or familiarity with using bed nets. Dr. Spiegel described these refugee camps as hyper-endemic for malaria. “Nets are incredibly important,” he said.

This World Refugee Day, take a moment to think about what home means to you. No one wants to be uprooted from home, but refugees have no choice. During a recent visit to Kakuma Refugee Camp near the South Sudan border, we met families who were far from home, struggling to make a life in a strange place.

What do a giant inflatable boy, a hairy dog, a human-sized mosquito, and a member of Congress have in common? These unlikely allies came together this past weekend to bring the fight against malaria to Lincoln, Nebraska!

Not much scares Jordan Freer. Not ocean currents. Not icy water. Not sharks. And certainly not defeat. Fifty years after three prisoners’ notorious escape (and disappearance) from Alcatraz, the 9-year-old girl from tiny Lotus, California swam 1 ½ miles from Alcatraz to San Francisco to raise money for Nothing But Nets.

A Nothing But Nets team of friends and supporters is gearing up for an eye-opening visit to Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya this week; we'll be distributing life-saving bed nets to refugees fleeing violence along the border of Sudan and South Sudan. Since last June, more than 130,000 people have escaped fighting in the region. 75,000 more are expected this year. Not only do these refugees need food, water, and shelter -- but now that the rainy season has begun, malaria poses an even greater threat.

The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood provided a gorgeous art deco backdrop for the Nothing But Nets World Malaria Day event, hosted by our partners at the Nederlander Organization. Stars, singers, and talented child actors came together to lend their support to our appeal to send 100,000 life-saving bed nets to refugees fleeing violence in South Sudan.  Young performers wrote heartfelt “Letters of Hope” to refugee children in South Sudan, where malaria is the number one killer of children under five.

Monday night’s inspiring World Malaria Day NETworking reception at the United Nations headquarters in New York City truly spread the buzz about Nothing But Nets’ appeal to send 100,000 life-saving bed nets to refugees fleeing violence in South Sudan. Mozzie the Mosquito mugged alongside supporters including NBA Legend Shaquille O’Neal and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who honored Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium for her work with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.