RSS
Creating a Net Culture to Save Lives
On the surface, Episcopal Relief & Development’s NetsforLife® program partnership might seem rather simple — distributing insecticide-treated nets that are placed over sleeping areas so people lying under them don’t get bitten by mosquitoes carrying the potentially deadly malaria parasite.
However, in practice, it’s more complicated — but even more transformative.
That’s because the main purpose of NetsforLife® isn’t just to get the nets out; it’s to change behavior and instill in families and their communities a “net culture” to help end the scourge of a disease that kills one million people each year, most of them children under age five.
.jpg)
One reason why this goal is being achieved is because NetsforLife® empowers those affected by malaria to educate others about the urgency of sleeping under nets every single night, and spreading that message far and wide. Many of the volunteers who go out into the villages to distribute nets have either survived malaria or lost loved children to the disease. Their stories are compelling and heart-rending. People listen. And they respond.
The power of NetsforLife®’s message is further amplified by the fact that clergy preach about net use from the pulpit. The program could have no more effective team of messengers.
Equally important is systematic quality control, monitoring and evaluation. No volunteer goes into the field without first receiving extensive training on proper net installation and how to educate recipients. The result is exceptionally high net use — far higher than other efforts have achieved.
For example, during a remarkable one-week period in May 2010, when 17,781 volunteers hung 655,369 nets in Northern Ghana, they discovered 30,000 nets previously distributed by other programs that had never been hung because the recipients were not told what to do with them. The NetsforLife® volunteers hung those nets in addition to the ones they distributed.
The transformative impact of NetsforLife® is being seen not only in improved health and lives saved, but also in many other aspects of life. Various reports from the field indicate that after nets are distributed in a village, the number of children attending school increases significantly. The food supply also increases because there are more people to tend the fields. As a result, income rises and hope returns to many communities once decimated by malaria and poverty.
The proven success of the approach NetsforLife® has pioneered is attracting the attention of scores of other development programs, some of which are consulting Episcopal Relief & Development program officers as they implement similar efforts. Thus, the impact of NetsforLife® is actually extending far beyond its official scope.
The program’s innovative, community-based approach is reflected in the diversity of partners who are supporting NetsforLife®. Among the foundations, corporations, and faith-based organizations working together to eliminate malaria in Africa are ExxonMobil, Standard Chartered Bank, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Starr International Foundation and the J.C. Flowers Foundation.
The program’s future looks bright, too, because of the strong commitment of the Episcopal Church and countless Episcopalians engaged in the newly-launched NetsforLife® Inspiration Fund. This grassroots campaign will help NetsforLife® deliver upon its promise for Phase II of the program to distribute 7 million nets and better more than 21 million lives in 30,000 communities. Over the next three years, dioceses, congregations, schools, seminaries, universities and local activists are organizing at the community level, generating enormous interest and enthusiasm as well as resources.
