Do your friends know how many lives are forfeited in Africa because of malaria?

Why?

It’s true, as a citizen of the United States you don’t have to worry about malaria but while you can safely travel to Africa with the right vaccinations and prescriptions, many of the people there are dying of a preventable disease. Many Americans are unaware of the fact that malaria is killing millions of Africans, despite the fact that there are easy, concrete ways to address this epidemic. It may have been eradicated from the United States, but now is our chance to make sure malaria disappears from the entire world.

Plus, did you know that malaria and poverty are intimately connected? Malaria is both a cause and consequence of poverty. Without the money to ensure prevention and receive treatment, more and more children die each day. In addition, the illness debilitates the workforce preventing the country achieving economic success.

*Check out our page about global extreme poverty to understand the consequences of extreme global poverty.

Make sure students understand what malaria is.

-Get a speaker or science teacher at your school to explain the different types of malaria and what you can do to fight it.

-Show a documentary film about the disease.

-Compile some information about the disease and print out fact sheets, flyer them all around school, bathrooms and the school cafeteria are great places to hit!

Making facts hit home

Some times it easier for us to understand the degree of a crisis when we see or hear the number of people that that are dying. Create a way of memorializing each person who dies in Africa due to Malaria. Here are some facts and ways to make these facts reach people.

Fact: ‘Someone dies from malaria every 30 seconds’

Idea: Talk to school administrators and find out if you can sound a beep every 30 seconds for an entire day. This way students will constantly be aware of how crucial this issue is.

Fact: ’3 million people die from malaria a year.’

Idea: Choose a central location in your school and a small image on a note card, a symbol, or even a thumbtack that can serve as a representation of each African who has died. Leave out the proper supplies and ask students to put up at least one note-card. You may never get to the 3 million but as your friends begin to realize this, they will be shocked by the number of deaths that malaria is causing.

-If you don’t have the wall space, try this…

Find out the exact number of people who die from each country in malaria. Create jars to represent each country and fill them with a jelly bean, penny, or tootsie roll to represent each person who has died. Place them around the school and hold a contest, have students guess the number of tokens in each jar. Once people become involved with the game you can explain the significance and people will begin to see how deadly malaria really is.

Unity

One of the best ways to raise awareness about an issue is to get everyone to unite. Can you get everyone in your school to…

-Wear something (a button, ribbon, color, etc…) in honor of malaria prevention

-Take 30 seconds of silence for the one African who has just died due to malaria

-Put up a sign, poster, or flyer up on their front door to remind others about the issue

Bring your campaign home

If you really want to spread the word, don’t confine the issue to your high school. Head to your community, talk to government officials, parents in your neighborhood.

Start a chain

Want to really spread the word? Grab the students at your school who were interested or inspired by the campaign. Take a field trip to a school nearby and lead a workshop or pass out some information. Let other students know about this important issue and with students teaching students, we know young people will be more willing to listen. Ask each school you visit to take their new knowledge and bring it to another neighborhood.

This way we can begin to empower all Americans to understand the issue and starting helping to promote change!

You’re not done yet!

Use the enthusiasm from your awareness campaign to launch a fundraiser to Raise a Village in Africa through Do Something. Starting December 1st Do Something will begin collecting donations to raise a village in Africa and will be sending 100% of the donation to help the village. Check it out here