ELCA Malaria Campaign

A class of students at Burure Primary School in Zimbabwe sings a song about malaria.

When I stepped onto the grounds of Burure Primary school in Zimbabwe, the first sound that I heard was a room full of first graders singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” It was fun to hear this familiar tune in a place so far from home. Indeed, singing is a great way for children to learn. In addition to songs about barnyard animals or the alphabet, school children in Burure also learn songs to help teach about malaria.

On a visit to the Burure Primary school, we had the opportunity to see children sing, dance and offer poems – all on the topic of malaria. There are about 1000 school-aged children in Burure. A group of courageous kids bravely performed in front of a crowd of several hundred people, a group which included fellow-students, school staff members and international guests.

Some songs described symptoms that people should beware of. Others talked about different prevention techniques. One class came together and sang beautiful songs as a choir.

A student shares her experience with malaria through poetry.

A memorable poem was given by a girl that was lamenting how malaria was making many of her family members sick. “Malaria, malaria,” she cried, “First my father, and now my brother.”  Another poet proclaimed, “Fever, aching, chills – when will it end?” It was clear that these students had experienced malaria in a personal, impactful way.

One dance group was particularly memorable, thanks to their energetic and rousing routine. The children chanted, shouted and cheered as they danced, ran and pounded percussive dumbbells together. Their songs were all in the local language, but the content was clear. Every now and then a strong, “Malaria!” would ring out – a word that is in the same in English as it is in many other languages.

At the same gathering, there was a question and answer session related to malaria, which was led by Yeukai Muzuzewa, Malaria Project Coordinator for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe. She would ask questions related to malaria and the students would raise their hands quickly, eager to give an answer. She asked for examples of symptoms, she asked about vulnerable populations and she asked about bed nets. With each question, she couldn’t stump the students. It was clear that this is a well-educated community in the area of malaria.

 Visiting the school makes me hopeful for the future. With so many young advocates already learning how to identify, treat and prevent malaria, I’m confident that the deaths from malaria will continue to decline as the months and years go on. Perhaps there wasn’t such a clear public health message when their parents were growing up, but certainly the next generation has the tools to make malaria history. 

Singing, dancing and cheering from an energetic group of Zimbabwean students!

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There’s a lot of exciting news to report this week– drum roll please…

The ELCA Malaria Campaign has met its $250,000 goal for World Malaria Week! (In fact, we far exceeded our goal– but we’re not sure yet by how much, exactly.) This means we’ve raised enough money to jumpstart malaria programming in the Katakwi District of Uganda, in partnership with Lutheran World Federation.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the commemoration of World Malaria Week through prayer, education and giving.

And… we’re halfway to our goal!  The phenomenal results from World Malaria Week have propelled us beynod this very important milestone.  Members, congregations and synods of the ELCA have given more than $7.5 million so far to support malaria programming run by Lutheran churches and organizations in Angola, Central African Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. That brings us over halfway to our goal of $15 million by 2015.

Just a personal note here: I am so proud to be a member of a church that is so generous and so committed to the health of all of God’s children! I’ve seen these malaria programs in action, and I know that our transatlantic partnership is strong– much generosity in the ELCA, and much expertise and hard work among our Lutheran sisters and brothers in Africa, and much prayer surrounding all of us. We are truly walking hand in hand to make malaria  history!

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There has been a lot of malaria-related activity in ELCA congregations this week– thanks be to God!

Many thanks to Dorothy Sorrell, Synod Malaria Coordinator for the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod, for gathering these photos and updates!

The Metropolitan Washington, DC Synod showed its support of World Malaria Week in a variety of ways.  A few examples include:

- Pastor Gerry Johnson of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Fairfax, VA, gathered children under a mosquito net to tell them about malaria.  Pastor Michael Gutzler and the members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Woodbridge, VA saw beautiful butterflies as a way of reminding everyone of the need to support the Malaria Campaign through the purchase of nets.  Pastor Robert Lewis, Jr. and members of Messiah Lutheran, Alexandria, VA,  made the mosquitoes disappear as nets were purchased.  Pastor Margrethe Klieber and the members of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Fairfax, VA, began their month-long congregational Malaria Campaign on Malaria Sunday.

- The Synod Global Mission Committee met on Malaria Sunday, and Pastor Robert Allard, Chair of the Committee,  led the group in the ELCA Malaria Litany and Prayers.

- The Metro DC Synodical Women’s Organization listened to Dorothy Sorrell, Synod Malaria Campaign Coordinator, describe the people who are being helped as we accompany Lutheran Church bodies in Africa, and were provided resource materials.

The Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod is committed to the work of the Malaria Campaign, and is on its way toward meeting its goal of $250,000 and 100% participation by Synod congregations.

We’d love to share updates from your synod, too! How did congregations in your synod celebrate World Malaria Week? How will you continue to support the work of the ELCA Malaria Campaign now that World Malaria Day is finished? Send your stories to jessica.nipp@elca.org. Some will be featured on our blog!

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Lucy Akiding, of Katakwi District in Uganda, struggles to provide for her four children when she is sick with malaria.

“Rarely a week goes by when one of my children is not fainting, so maybe every two weeks someone has malaria,” says Lucy Akiding, a 23-year-old mother of four in Uganda.  Parenting becomes very complicated when children are often sick.  And for Lucy, malaria interferes with her own ability to run her household as well. “When I have [malaria], that is a week when I cannot do my garden work,” she explains. 

In a household where subsistence farming is the primary (or only) form of nutrition and income generation, malaria’s effects are devastating. (Read more here!)

Malaria is an urgent health problem in the Katakwi District of Uganda, one of the poorest areas of Uganda.  In an area where half of the population survives on less than $0.80 per day, community members cannot afford malaria prevention supplies or proper health care when they or their children get sick. The ELCA-supported malaria program in Katakwi will make a huge difference.

This past week, the ELCA Malaria Campaign has celebrated “World Malaria Week,” asking members and congregations of the ELCA to donate to support the efforts of the Lutheran World Federation malaria project in Katakwi, Uganda.

A generous matching challenge is doubling all gifts given this week (up to $130,000). We don’t have final numbers yet, because the gifts continue to pour in, but we are confident that your generosity is up to the challenge of raising $250,000 this week to jump-start malaria prgoramming in Katakwi, Uganda.

Our sincere thanks to all of you who have supported World Malaria Week, and who will continue to support the ELCA Malaria Campaign next week, and next month, and next year! Together with our companions in Africa, we are making a difference in the lives of people like Lucy and her family.

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Invest in the future–defeat malaria!  That’s the theme for World Malaria Day 2013, which is celebrated worldwide on April 25.  

Our Lutheran sisters and brothers in Southern Africa have put together some great resources for World Malaria Day. You can access these resources on the LUCSA web site.  LUCSA–the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa–is a sub-regional expression of the Lutheran World Federation.  LUCSA is operating ELCA-funded malaria prgorams in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  (The ELCA is funding malaria progams in six other African countries as well.)

On the LUCSA web site you’ll find two great infographics that measure the impact of malaria programs in the Southern Africa region in the past decade, statistics such as:

• The percentage of households in sub-Saharan Africa owning at least one insecticide-treated net has risen from 3% in 2000 to 50% in 2011.
• The proportion of suspected malaria cases that receive rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) in public health facilities has risen from 2% in 2000 to 45% in 2011.   Greater access to RDTs means more lives are saved!
  

  Lucas Owuor-Omondi

You’ll also be able to view a World Malaria Day video message from Lucas Owuor-Omondi, the Regional Malaria Program Coordinator in Southern Africa.  Lucas says,

“Malaria has been around since the dawn of humankind, and continues to ravage the lives of millions of people around the world. Combined with HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases, malaria forms a destructive alliance that brings pain and suffering to much of the developing world.  LUCSA and its partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, are walking hand in hand to help communities build a holistic approach to respond to this disease.”

It’s a 4-minute video, and I encourage you to watch all of it here (scroll down to find the video) and share it with your friends!

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Photo: Matt Jeppsen

During my visit in Northwest Zambia, I was struck by the ingenuity of the people in the Zambezi, Dipalata and Nyakulenga communities. Out of the few available material resources, community members had devised the tools and instruments they needed to farm their fields, cook meals, shelter their families and celebrate joyfully. The areas I visited had a high prevalence of poverty and disease, but an equally high prevalence of inventors and skilled workers who were up to the challenge of caring for their households and their communities.

Living in an urban area in the United States, I take for granted the vast multitude of resources available to me at the click of a mouse or with a short trip (in my own car, down paved roads) to the warehouse store down the road. Just about anything I need, I can purchase—manufactured, assembled and usually even automated.  In the rural communities I visited, the internet and department stores were out of reach, and so people found the answers within themselves.

Read the rest of Jessica’s reflections here.

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Abel Makungwe (Photo: Matt Jeppsen)

Abel Makungwe, Project Coordinator of the Lutheran Malaria Program in Zambia, provided this snapshot of the impact the malaria program has had in a town called Kashima in Northwest Zambia.

In the community of Kashima, we used to have a high rate of maternal mortality. This was caused because women did not want to attend pre-natal care at the clinic; they would want to go to traditional leaders instead, and use their traditional remedies to heal. But it was discovered that the more they were going to these traditional healers, the more they were dying. Then the Lutheran Malaria Program moved into Kashima.  We started working with the Kashima Rural Health Center, working with the women there. We started in the church, and then from the church we rolled it out to the communities and worked with the traditional leaders in the area.

The women’s ward of the Kashima Rural Health Center in Zambia is prepared with mosquito nets.

And the maternal mortality at Kashima Rural Health Center has really reduced tremendously—last year, they recorded zero mortality on the maternity [ward]. We have seen this success because of the preventive measure – we call it IPTp, which is Intermittent Presumptive Therapy [for Pregnant women]. This is a program where pregnant women are given three doses of Fansidar as a preventive measure.  They get these doses when they are pregnant: three months pregnant, six months, and then as they are going towards the expected delivery date.

Recently there was one family in Kashima  that was hit very hard with malaria. They would take their children to the clinic almost every week.  And then they resorted to going to traditional healers. One week, one of the kids would be down with malaria.  They would take him or her to the traditional healer, and then the following week another child would be sick. When the Lutheran Malaria Program came, we started sensitizing this family, and giving them the education about malaria.  We advised them to go to the health facility.

As a family, the whole household was taken to the Kashima Health Center, where they were tested for malaria.  And fortunately enough, or unfortunately enough, about five of their household members were positive for malaria. They were put on malaria treatment and they got well. From that day until now, they have not experienced any serious malaria cases in their home. And on the issue of income—they are no longer spending as much money as they used to spend on treatment, and give to these traditional healers. They are healthy now.

The Kashima Rural Health Center in Zambia provides excellent malaria care and prevention.

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Mphatso Thole (R), communicator for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi, and John Bvumbwe (L), malaria focal person in a community near Nkhotakota, Malawi.

Mphasto Thole is the Communicator for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM).  Last month, Mphatso and his colleagues welcomed two delegations from the ELCA.  They hosted a visit from Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, and they also hosted a delegation of staff and volunteers from the ELCA Malaria Campaign.

Recently the ELCM published a news release about Bishop Hanson’s visit.  Mphatso writes,

In Alex Perry’s book Lifeblood: How to change the world, one dead mosquito at a time (2011)  the author pointed out that the word Mal`aria was coined in the year 1574, Italian for ‘bad air’, after the foul swamp vapours originally thought to carry it.  In 2013, however, Bishop Bvumbwe of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi has his own definition: malaria is a disease transmitted by a mosquito and has made an alliance with HIV and AIDS to kill people. While both definitions deliver a point, this article unpacks the second definition by taking readers on board to know what is happening in Nkhotakota and Salima, the districts that enjoy the breeze of Lake Malawi while people who sleep without bed nets 365 days a year, suffer because of the mosquito bites and the disease they transmit.

You can read the whole article here.

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Many thanks to Dick and Bev Moody, members of our National Leadership Team, for their leadership on the Malaria Team at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Prospect Heights, IL, and for sharing this article with us! And many thanks to the members of Good Shepherd for their generous support!

An infestation at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Prospect Heights, IL.

A mosquito infestation occurred during Lent in our congregation!  350 paper mosquitos were hung from the ceilings throughout the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Prospect Heights, Illinois.

In an area of the nave was a likeness of child’s room with a mosquito net hanging over the bed. These visuals got the attention of members as they committed to a Lenten Mission Project to raise funds for the ELCA Malaria Campaign. The goal was to raise $5,000 within three years to help fight malaria in Africa. Our Good Shepherd Malaria Team suggested that if every giving unit in our congregation gave $15 per year for three years, we would reach our goal.  So for every $15 donated, a mosquito was removed.

Pastor Eric Schlichting shows his support for the ELCA Malaria Campaign

It was surprising how quickly the mosquitos came down. Each week, the Swat-o-Meter in the Narthex reported the campaign income and the number of mosquitos removed.  In the photo at right, Pastor Eric Schlichting is checking out the progress.

Generous offerings designated to malaria were given at the mid-week Lenten suppers and from various other events. Sunday worshipers heard stories and received information on how the ELCA is working with Lutheran churches and communities in eleven countries in Africa to treat, educate, and prevent this disease. Campaign response cards were mailed to church members midway through the 40 days of Lent. Donations and pledges to the campaign flowed in from individuals and families.

As we celebrated Easter, the Good Shepherd Lenten Mission Project concluded with a fabulous outcome of over $6,600 raised in cash and pledges for the ELCA Malaria Campaign.  Alleluia!

Other congregations are encouraged to do a similar 4 to 6 week campaign using the excellent resources that can be found at www.elca.org/malaria where the ELCA Malaria Campaign Action Kit, brochures, bulletin inserts and new coutry profiles are available.  Other suggestions are to plan a shorter fund- raising campaign around the time of World Malaria Day on April 25 or during vacation Bible school.

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