No child should die because of a mosquito bite. Together, we can end malaria in our lifetime.
Malaria is near and dear to our family, because Cory has had malaria several times. She lived in Madagascar, Africa for 8 years and contracted malaria for the first time during her first year there.
Many people who live in Africa and other countries as well are susceptible to a mosquito bite.
How can this dreaded disease be stopped? Well, one way is by providing bed nets treated with insecticides. One $6 bed net is large enough to protect 2 children or more for about 4 years.
Why is this cause important? Because more than 2,000 children die each day from malaria. (some sources say 3,000)
Malaria is a potentially fatal infection of the blood that is caused by a protozoan parasite called Plasmodium. An infection occurs when a person is bitten by a mosquito that carries the parasite.
Malaria is preventable and treatable. However, each year, 350-500 million people are infected with malaria. African children under the age of five account for 75% of those who die--that's 3,000 children each day and 20% of ALL childhood deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. (source: UNICEF)
Malaria endangers pregnant mothers and babies. It is responsible for as many as 10,000 maternal deaths a year. Women who contract malaria during pregnancy can run the risk of maternal anemia, spontaneous abortions and stillborn children. Their children may suffer from impaired fetal growth, premature birth or low birth weight.
Malaria symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, and joint aches. If left untreated, malaria can develop into cerebral malaria that can cause a coma and even death.
Let's put an end to malaria. Bite Back! Donate $6 per bed net to World Vision or $10 per net to Compassion International!
HELP SAVE A LIFE!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Malaria--Cory's Story
Since today is World Malaria Day I thought it fitting to post Cory's encounter with the disease. (This is a little different version than last years post.)
I remember when I first got malaria in Madagascar in 1999 on an outreach.
I was with a team of about ten people, and I was the only 'white' person. The outreach had started out fine, until I started to feel sick. I didn't know what it was, but I had the chills, stomach ache, and loss of appetite. After a day or so, I was getting worse and so we called for a doctor. He came and knew right away it was malaria. I was put on some medication and then later a nurse came to start giving me shots. I had to have three shots, once a day. The following days, I still couldn't eat much and I had to pretty much wobble to get to the bathroom (which was outside) since I felt dizzy getting up and was completely weak. During this period, my teammates had to leave for an overnight trip to the bush. I stayed back at the house where a family was hosting us. I remember, as I was resting, or trying to rest, one of the helper guys was peeking in on me through the window. I was thinking, what's up with this guy...I guess he doesn't see too many white people, especially sick ones. So once he left I closed all the windows.
I don't really remember how I slept that night, since I was in a foreign place, I didn't speak the language yet, I was alone in the house, and there was a guy peeking in on me...it must have been all those drugs that I was on.
It took a good couple of weeks before I could regain my strength and feel like a part of the team again, doing ministry.
That wasn't the only time that I had malaria, as it stays in your blood once you get it. I got it again, worse than the first time in 2000. My friends were even saying if I needed to go home earlier (I was due for a furlough two months before I got sick), they would totally release me.
The symptoms were worse than before and I really thought it was going to be my last days. I got so weak that I couldn't do anything...I needed help getting to the bathroom (which was a bucket as I was on the top floor of the house and couldn't go up and down the stairs) and needed help eating, though I didn't eat much because I couldn't keep anything down.
As I lay there in bed, not knowing what was going to happen, being away from my family...people started praying for me more and more. One of the people I was staying with was a 'shepherd' from her church in Madagascar. The ‘shepherds’ go to different villages and pray for the sick and cast out demons. So this woman took her Bible and stood up on the bed that I was laying on and started praying and rebuking the enemy. Seriously, the next day and the days after that, I started to slowly get better. I was able to keep some food down. After two weeks I was able to regain my strength. I think that was the hardest time: being sick and being away from home. But you know, even as I lay there sick, there was a peace also upon me, knowing that if that was my time, it wasn't in vain.
The malaria didn't stop there though, I got it again in Tamatave around 2002. This case of malaria wasn't as bad as the first two but I was to be hospitalized if I didn't get better. Well, not wanting to be in a hospital bed, I prayed for healing and that the medicines would work. Praise God, He healed me once again.
World Malaria Day!
Malaria: A deadly threat with a simple solution
By Heidi Isaza and Peter Warski, World Vision U.S.
Rachel Chuya, mother of five in Zambia, remembers her family's battles with malaria.
"Malaria could not end in our household," she says. "It was like we were just exchanging [it]. When my husband suffered from malaria and he got healed, the next person [to get it] was me. When I got healed, the next [were] our children," she remembers.
"It was very painful."
She recalls the symptoms of this terrible disease -- such as fever, chills, yellow eyes, rashes, and vomiting -- and the terrible toll it took on her husband and children.
"It is difficult when a child is suffering from malaria," says Rachel. "As a mother, you are stuck. You get home [from the clinic], and you have nothing you can do. All that comes to mind is, 'I am waiting for my child to die.'"
Rachel had good reason to worry about her children. "I have seen a lot of people die from malaria," she says somberly.
Thankfully, none of her children died. But they did face consequences far beyond physical illness.
"When they suffered from malaria, they [would] take a minimum of two weeks to heal, and by the time they go back to school, they are left behind," Rachel says.
She knew the source of the problem -- and its solution. Infected mosquitoes that would bite her husband and children while they slept could be stopped with bed nets that cost less than $10 each. But for this struggling family, even the nets were cost-prohibitive.
"It has been a challenging thing to decide whether to buy a net or to buy food for the children," she says. "Of course you choose food, because [with] the little money you have, you just have to buy food for the children," she says, adding that her family can only grow their own food during the rainy season -- and even then, it's not enough.
But thanks to gifts given through World Vision's Gift Catalog, their community received bed nets -- including three for Rachel's family. Now, all of them are protected from malaria-carrying mosquitoes as they sleep.
"This time, we are very much free [from malaria] and my children are healthy," says Rachel. "Even at the clinic they are surprised. They say, 'Mrs. Chuya, you can't be seen here. What's happened?' And I tell them that I have no problems now that I've got the nets."
Lillian, 11, loves sleeping under her net. "I feel more secure because [the mosquitoes] are unable to come and bite us," she says.
And with the nets, the children can again succeed with their education. "Now, I am a proud mother. My children are healthy, and when they go to school, they are getting good results," Rachel says with a smile.
"Thank you so much to the donors who helped me get the mosquito nets. It has been a prayer answered to my household," she adds.
Thank God for bringing Rachel's family healing and relief after a long period of suffering. Pray for other families and communities still affected by deadly malaria, and pray for an end to this preventable, treatable disease.
Make a one-time gift to World Vision's Malaria Eradication Fund. Your donation will triple in impact to fight malaria in Africa with interventions like insecticide-treated bed nets, medical care, prevention education, and more.
Give monthly to help fight malaria around the world. Your monthly contribution will help us provide prevention and treatment against this deadly disease, like bed nets, medical care, prevention education, and more.
Send a message to your members of Congress. Ask them to oppose devastating funding cuts to the International Affairs Budget, which provides life-saving assistance to fight deadly but preventable diseases like malaria.
Please help if you can! Check out www.worldvision.org
By Heidi Isaza and Peter Warski, World Vision U.S.
Rachel Chuya, mother of five in Zambia, remembers her family's battles with malaria.
"Malaria could not end in our household," she says. "It was like we were just exchanging [it]. When my husband suffered from malaria and he got healed, the next person [to get it] was me. When I got healed, the next [were] our children," she remembers.
"It was very painful."
She recalls the symptoms of this terrible disease -- such as fever, chills, yellow eyes, rashes, and vomiting -- and the terrible toll it took on her husband and children.
"It is difficult when a child is suffering from malaria," says Rachel. "As a mother, you are stuck. You get home [from the clinic], and you have nothing you can do. All that comes to mind is, 'I am waiting for my child to die.'"
Rachel had good reason to worry about her children. "I have seen a lot of people die from malaria," she says somberly.
Thankfully, none of her children died. But they did face consequences far beyond physical illness.
"When they suffered from malaria, they [would] take a minimum of two weeks to heal, and by the time they go back to school, they are left behind," Rachel says.
She knew the source of the problem -- and its solution. Infected mosquitoes that would bite her husband and children while they slept could be stopped with bed nets that cost less than $10 each. But for this struggling family, even the nets were cost-prohibitive.
"It has been a challenging thing to decide whether to buy a net or to buy food for the children," she says. "Of course you choose food, because [with] the little money you have, you just have to buy food for the children," she says, adding that her family can only grow their own food during the rainy season -- and even then, it's not enough.
But thanks to gifts given through World Vision's Gift Catalog, their community received bed nets -- including three for Rachel's family. Now, all of them are protected from malaria-carrying mosquitoes as they sleep.
"This time, we are very much free [from malaria] and my children are healthy," says Rachel. "Even at the clinic they are surprised. They say, 'Mrs. Chuya, you can't be seen here. What's happened?' And I tell them that I have no problems now that I've got the nets."
Lillian, 11, loves sleeping under her net. "I feel more secure because [the mosquitoes] are unable to come and bite us," she says.
And with the nets, the children can again succeed with their education. "Now, I am a proud mother. My children are healthy, and when they go to school, they are getting good results," Rachel says with a smile.
"Thank you so much to the donors who helped me get the mosquito nets. It has been a prayer answered to my household," she adds.
Thank God for bringing Rachel's family healing and relief after a long period of suffering. Pray for other families and communities still affected by deadly malaria, and pray for an end to this preventable, treatable disease.
Make a one-time gift to World Vision's Malaria Eradication Fund. Your donation will triple in impact to fight malaria in Africa with interventions like insecticide-treated bed nets, medical care, prevention education, and more.
Give monthly to help fight malaria around the world. Your monthly contribution will help us provide prevention and treatment against this deadly disease, like bed nets, medical care, prevention education, and more.
Send a message to your members of Congress. Ask them to oppose devastating funding cuts to the International Affairs Budget, which provides life-saving assistance to fight deadly but preventable diseases like malaria.
Please help if you can! Check out www.worldvision.org
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
No Facebook
This week I decided to take myself off of Facebook for a few days. Actually it was a challenge from my Relentless journey to become forgotten. The thing I miss most I guess is the fact I couldn’t be a voice for the voiceless as readily as I could have been. Of course, I don’t always post intellectual or spiritual posts by a long shot. However, when something comes to mind to share, I enjoy sharing those thoughts. Facebook can be fun, and it does hold a purpose I suppose: chatting with friends and family that live a far away (or even in the same house-ha!), finding old friends and rebuilding relationships, and of course the games. LOL!!! I was able to figure out how to post something without actually being on Facebook--you may have noticed a couple that I posted on Tuesday.
I may never be in a situation like so many children around the world who find themselves living on the streets, in sewers or in orphan mills. And I will never truly know what it means to be completely hopeless and forgotten. But I can be a voice to those who are.
Do you remember who, on that Christmas night in Bethlehem, was told of Christ’s birth? God chose the shepherds--the forgotten and hopeless. He could have told kings or rulers and religious leaders. But he chose shepherds of all people. Shepherds in New Testament times were often despised because they lived with their flocks day and night. They were thought of as ceremonially unclean and not permitted to enter the temple. They resembled the hopelessness of children on the streets. However, Jesus is our HOPE--the hope for these children.
Do you know of anyone who has been forgotten? Pray for children around the world that feel hopeless and forgotten.
I may never be in a situation like so many children around the world who find themselves living on the streets, in sewers or in orphan mills. And I will never truly know what it means to be completely hopeless and forgotten. But I can be a voice to those who are.
Do you remember who, on that Christmas night in Bethlehem, was told of Christ’s birth? God chose the shepherds--the forgotten and hopeless. He could have told kings or rulers and religious leaders. But he chose shepherds of all people. Shepherds in New Testament times were often despised because they lived with their flocks day and night. They were thought of as ceremonially unclean and not permitted to enter the temple. They resembled the hopelessness of children on the streets. However, Jesus is our HOPE--the hope for these children.
Do you know of anyone who has been forgotten? Pray for children around the world that feel hopeless and forgotten.
25 Hours of Silence
For 25 years, the Lords Resistance Army has been committing terrible atrocities against innocent people in central Africa. After the LRA was driven out of northern Uganda in 2005, they have been occupying some of the most remote and isolated territory in the entire region. They are attacking communities that have virtually no way to communicate to the outside world. The cries of the victims go silent.
Therefore, on April 25th thousands around the world will go silent, to speak out without speaking.
For more information go to www.invisiblechildren.com
Invisible Children will also be on Oprah tomorrow, Wednesday April 20 if you have a chance to watch.
Therefore, on April 25th thousands around the world will go silent, to speak out without speaking.
For more information go to www.invisiblechildren.com
Invisible Children will also be on Oprah tomorrow, Wednesday April 20 if you have a chance to watch.
Monday, April 18, 2011
More Thoughts on Hopeless and Forgotten
Have you ever felt hopeless or forgotten at some time in your life? Do you remember what it felt like? When I was a little girl, maybe first grade, I walked home from school and no one was there. Where had my family gone? Was I forgotten? I felt so alone. I sat on the front porch until my family returned. I felt frightened and knowing me, I probably cried too. I can’t even imagine children on the street that feel all alone, as if no one cared, no one loved them. The orphans living on their own, possibly raising younger siblings instead of attending school or playing with friends--feeling all alone, helpless, hopeless, speechless, voiceless, forgotten, and the list goes on.
The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the LORD will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
--Isaiah 41:17
Not all of the children on the street choose to be there. They may be kicked out of their homes as Romeo was (previous story), by his stepmother who didn’t want her husband’s children. Perhaps the children can’t be fed or taken care of in the home. Some are sold into slavery, others are on the streets. Maybe, not all children who feel hopeless and forgotten live on the streets. They may live at home and in a family, but for whatever reasons, they still feel forgotten and alone.
Sometimes we may forget; we forget about God or other people in our lives and about ourselves.
For Romeo and each one of us, we can find comfort and peace in knowing God will never leave or forsake us. He will always remember who we are. Even when we feel forgotten or when we fail to remember Him or others around us, remember that God will always be faithful and remain with His people.
(parts of this writing was taken from World Vision act:s Relentless message)
The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the LORD will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
--Isaiah 41:17
Not all of the children on the street choose to be there. They may be kicked out of their homes as Romeo was (previous story), by his stepmother who didn’t want her husband’s children. Perhaps the children can’t be fed or taken care of in the home. Some are sold into slavery, others are on the streets. Maybe, not all children who feel hopeless and forgotten live on the streets. They may live at home and in a family, but for whatever reasons, they still feel forgotten and alone.
Sometimes we may forget; we forget about God or other people in our lives and about ourselves.
For Romeo and each one of us, we can find comfort and peace in knowing God will never leave or forsake us. He will always remember who we are. Even when we feel forgotten or when we fail to remember Him or others around us, remember that God will always be faithful and remain with His people.
(parts of this writing was taken from World Vision act:s Relentless message)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
End Malaria
Tonight 2,000 children will die from mosquito bites and it's entirely preventable. No child should die from a mosquito bite, and if we work together, no child will. Malaria was wiped out in the U.S. only 60 years ago. It took just 5 years. When made a PRIORITY, malaria can be stopped. Malaria is a deadly disease that threatens half of the world's population. (3 billion people) Each year, approximately 250 million people get infected. That is equal to 83% of the U.S. population. Nearly 750,000 African children die each year from malaria. That is equal to all the children in Florida under age 5.
Since 1950
20 million deaths from all wars
25 million deaths from AIDS
41 (to 65) million child deaths from malaria
Who can help? You and your family! Only $6 will buy an insecticide-treated bed net that will save 2 lives and help kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
To combat malaria effectively, the United States must increase its funding to at least $1 billion a year. They passed a law promising to do so, but haven't yet followed through. For information on how to contact your elected leaders to persuade your representative to fund life-saving interventions, visit: www.actstoendmalaria.org.
Millions of lives are depending on us. Pray about how you can get involved.
(information from World Vision act:s--www.actstoendmalaria.org)
Since 1950
20 million deaths from all wars
25 million deaths from AIDS
41 (to 65) million child deaths from malaria
Who can help? You and your family! Only $6 will buy an insecticide-treated bed net that will save 2 lives and help kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
To combat malaria effectively, the United States must increase its funding to at least $1 billion a year. They passed a law promising to do so, but haven't yet followed through. For information on how to contact your elected leaders to persuade your representative to fund life-saving interventions, visit: www.actstoendmalaria.org.
Millions of lives are depending on us. Pray about how you can get involved.
(information from World Vision act:s--www.actstoendmalaria.org)
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