Nothing But Nets

A long time ago, my wife Maureen and I experimented with ways to raise money for Nothing But Nets™. In our commitment to battle malaria to the best of our abilities, we tried many things:  at first, we simply went door-to-door dressed in our Sunday finery. When that failed we tried dressing as large mosquitoes and handed out homemade cookies. That produced mixed results, although the cookies were a hit. We still weren't happy with the level of awareness or money we were raising, so we put together a small music festival which was very successful and ballooned into Lilith Fair, but malaria got nary a penny. In quick succession we attempted a garage sale (some success), a pie-eating contest (more success), a dance (rip-roaring success) and a mime show (no success at all). 

We finally came up with a basketball game to raise awareness and money and it was a huge success, certainly more than the mime show. Having set fundraising goals early on, we found we had exceeded them before the game was even played.

Day 1: Tuesday March 10, Nakivale Refugee Camp, Uganda

A child dies every thirty seconds from Malaria. That’s a gut-punch stat – the showstopper. It has the rare effect, elusive to statistics, to draw you up cold, made altogether worse because it’s true.

And where is it true? Well, one place is where we are today, at the Nakivale Refugee Camp, slotted into the far reaches of southwest Uganda, 87 square miles of land, much of it the proud-plained beauty of equatorial Africa. And here come the children, laughing, curious; rushing you because you look funny, you talk funny, you’re tall and funny colored with a funny camera that takes funny pictures. These are your stats - here in the flesh - scrambling and giggling; engaged; hope-filled.