‘Imagine something more’ to end malaria, bishop says
Kaltouma
Zakaria Moussa relaxes beneath a new mosquito net provided by the
Nothing But Nets campaign at her home in a camp near Goz Beida, Chad,
where the Mentor Initiative is fighting malaria. UMNS file photos by
Mike DuBose. |
By Linda Bloom*
Oct. 16, 2009 | STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS)
United Methodist Bishop Thomas Bickerton keeps a $10 bill in his
pocket so he can demonstrate how little money it takes to protect an
African household from malaria.
But the roving ambassador for the denomination’s involvement in the Nothing But Nets
project, a joint effort with the United Nations Foundations and other
groups, has a much larger goal than the millions of bed nets that have
been sent to Africa.
Bickerton, who is chairperson of the Global Health Initiative for
the United Methodist Council of Bishops, seeks nothing less than the
elimination of malaria – a treatable and preventable disease that still
claims a life every 30 seconds -- by 2015.
The reality, he told directors of the United Methodist Committee on Relief during their Oct. 13 meeting, is that it will take a far greater effort than Nothing But Nets to achieve that goal.
Although UMCOR has been among the United Methodist partners
combating malaria, “we have to imagine something more,” the bishop
explained. “We have to imagine collaboration, cooperation and
partnership on a scale we have not thought of before.”
A new campaign, Imagine No Malaria, has been formed, with a public launch set for the next World Malaria Day – April 25, 2010.
$75 million fundraising goal
The church’s Global Health Initiative has a $75 million fundraising
goal approved by the 2008 General Conference. Imagine No Malaria will
expand grassroots programs like Nothing But Nets and develop more
comprehensive efforts to promote prevention and education activities,
strengthen health delivery systems and train health care workers to
more effectively treat the disease.
United
Methodist Bishop Thomas Bickerton displays a mosquito net during a
presentation about the Nothing But Nets campaign against malaria at
Youth 2007 in Greensboro, N.C. |
The United Methodist Church was the first faith-based partner in Imagine No Malaria,
but the Lutherans have joined the cause. The Lutheran Malaria
Initiative, also with a $75 million goal, is a shared effort among the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod and Lutheran World Relief.
Bickerton, who leads the Pittsburgh episcopal area, admits that
the 2015 deadline – a date set to halt deaths from malaria in one of
the millennium goals of the United Nations – “has been laughed at.”
But in the midst of such doubts, “the power of God is at work. We
have 160 years of success in this denomination when it comes to the
mission of the church.”
The United Methodist Church was approached to be a partner in this
endeavor because of the health delivery system it already has in
Africa, an aging but intact infrastructure that “has put us in place to
be a player on the world scene,” he said.
In fact, Bickerton added, a distinctly Methodist system – the
connectional system that binds its churches together around the world –
is serving as a model for the campaign.
“Malaria is being eliminated through connectionalism,” he declared.
“What the world is discovering is that we need each other to solve big
problems.”
The connection with the United Nations Foundation is “putting us in
places where, as a church, we could not go on our own,” Bickerton
pointed out.
The church, for example, is both a donor to and recipient of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has received a
grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is working with
International Federation of the Red Cross on distributing mosquito nets
in Sierra Leone.
‘Uniting of faith and work’
United Methodist Communications is leading the denomination’s effort
to meet the $75 million goal by the end of 2012. “This effort is really
a uniting of faith and work,” said the Rev. Gary Henderson, staff
executive.
An Imagine No Malaria pilot fundraising project in the Southwest Texas
Conference, which will expand across the denomination on a regional
basis, uses a five-step plan to attract donations.
“We go to churches and we ask them to set a goal – and then make it
fun,” explained Kevin Armshaw, a fundraising consultant. One of the
models is the “Impact 100 Society,” where individuals pledge gifts of
$1,000, $5,000 and $10,000.
Other church agencies are playing a role in the Global Health
Initiative. The Board of Global Ministries is focusing on the delivery
of health care-focused services to Africa through missionary work and
UMCOR.
The Board of Higher Education and Ministry is educating Africans to
help them acquire the skills to lift themselves out of poverty and
raising funds in the United States to aid the effort.
The Board of Church and Society is advocating for better education
about diseases of poverty plaguing Africa and asking lawmakers to adopt
policies to address the diseases.
Shannon Trilli, an executive with UMCOR Health, noted that a
significant portion of the $75 million goal will be invested back into
United Methodists hospitals and health systems in Africa. Church
leaders and local health boards “will tell us what they need, in their
communities, to fight malaria.”
Bickerton believes the goal is attainable. “When people sense a need
in The United Methodist Church, they have an overwhelming ability to
respond,” he said.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video
Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton: “A grassroots effort is keeping ‘Nothing But Nets’ on the front page.”
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Resources
Imagine No Malaria: UMC
Worship Resources
Nothing But Nets
United Methodist Committee on Relief
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