This translation is not completely accurate as it was automatically generated by a computer.
Powered by
By Linda Bloom*
5:00 P.M. ET May 29, 2013 | NEW YORK (UMNS)
Feliciana Domingos and her 1-year-old daughter Sarafine Lorenço take
shelter beneath a mosquito net in their home in Angola. A UMNS photo by
Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
In 2008, it seemed like a daunting challenge: Raise $75 million within seven years to end the deaths and suffering from malaria in Africa.
This month, the commitment made by The United Methodist Church through its Imagine No Malaria
initiative reached a June benchmark goal of $40 million ahead of
schedule. That total includes an additional $20 million received in
gifts and pledges over the past year.
United Methodist Bishop Thomas Bickerton, Imagine No Malaria
spokesperson, now considers the campaign to be “at its greatest point
of momentum.”
While many issues and causes come and go, “this campaign has
continued to be resilient in terms of capturing people’s attention,”
Bickerton told United Methodist News Service.
The bishop, who has been part of the campaign since the beginning,
acknowledged the time it takes to nurture a worldwide body of more than
12 million into action. Many annual (regional) conferences have had to
weed out other priorities so that Imagine No Malaria could find a
place, he noted, “and that’s now happening.”
‘A global win’
Sierra Leonian volunteers with the Imagine No Malaria campaign visit
with a small child in Koribondo Village near Bo, Sierra Leone, after
installing a new mosquito net in his home. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
The good news is that Imagine No Malaria funds have been making a difference in Africa from the beginning.
Shannon Trilli, director of global health for the United Methodist
Committee on Relief, called the entire campaign “part of a global win,”
noting that, since 2008, the death rate from malaria has been cut from
a death every 30 seconds to one every 60 seconds.
“We are part of a winning effort and a life-giving effort that is
just magnificent,” declared Trilli, who has worked on Imagine No
Malaria since 2009.
By standard calculations, the 1.1 million nets distributed through
Imagine No Malaria have saved nearly 17,000 lives, and more than 5,000
health workers have been trained to help improve many additional lives.
“It’s not just about life and death; it’s about quality of life, kind
of an abundant life,” she explained.
United Methodist health boards in African countries
are taking the lead on a whole host of health issues, including
malaria, hunger, nutrition, water and sanitation. “The strategy was to
really build the experience and skill set not just to combat malaria,
but to be good partners and recipients of funds,” Trilli said.
She returned recently from a trip to the Democratic Republic of
Congo where Imagine No Malaria provides a bright spot as “clinics are
showing zero clinic-based deaths because they actually have the
medicines to treat people.”
United Methodist Bishop Nkulu Ntambo (front) leads the closing prayer
after an assembly in observance of the 2010 World Malaria Day in Kamina,
Democratic Republic of the Congo. A UMNS photo by Lynne Dobson.
View in Photo Gallery
Such results help spur fundraising for the campaign. “We now have
all this documentable evidence of what it is doing,” Bickerton said.
“The death rate is dropping, the illness rate is dropping.”
He recalled a conversation several months ago with Dr. Kasombo Tshiani at Nyadire United Methodist Hospital in Zimbabwe who told him the hospital was seeing an increasing number of malaria cases.
As it turns out, no deaths from malaria had occurred yet this year,
an indicator that the church’s outreach efforts are working. “He said
the awareness levels that have been raised are now enabling people to
know that when they get sick from malaria they know where to go for
help,” Bickerton explained.
“Those kind of stories just continue to feed possibilities here in
the United States with people who want to have a meaningful way to
invest their money,” he said.
Gifts large and small
The fundraising momentum has come from gifts large and small, from million-dollar commitments to a teenager’s pizza fundraiser.
In the U.S., the Texas and Southwest Texas conferences have each
raised more than $1 million for Imagine No Malaria. Western
Pennsylvania has contributed more than $1.5 million and Minnesota and
Illinois Great Rivers have each donated more than $2 million.
With only 63 members, Peck’s Memorial United Methodist Church in
Maryville, Tenn., raised more than $15,000 simply by passing the
offering plate every single Sunday between Labor Day 2012 and Memorial
Day 2013. Other congregations and individuals in the Holston Conference
poured lemonade, walked, biked, shaved a pastor’s head and pledged to
skydive as a way to raise funds.
Big individual donations also have confirmed that Imagine No Malaria
can make a difference. “Sometimes it’s a person of significant
financial means (who) becomes convinced it’s an investment worth
making,” Bickerton said. “That’s as exciting as those lemonade stands.”
His invitation to annual conferences, churches or individual United
Methodists not yet participating in Imagine No Malaria: “Take this
campaign home. Run with us this last mile.”
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.