Diocesan ACW supports Buy-A-Net, Save-A-Life
by Ana Watts
Buy-A-Net, Save-A-Life — that’s Debra Lefebvre’s rallying cry, and it is the message she brought to the Diocesan ACW annual meeting in St. Andrews in early May. A nurse, mother and now founder and executive director of the Buy-A-Net Malaria Prevention Group, Canada’s first campaign aimed at malaria prevention, Debra is inspired by the women and children of Africa. “The struggle of one must be the struggle of all,” she told the full house at All Saint’s.
A $7 donation to Buy-A-Net enables the group to buy and distribute an insecticide-treated bed net to families in Uganda at no charge. The nets, made in Southeast Asia by a company with World Health Organization approval, cost about $5 each and are distributed by Buy-A-Net partners like the Bwindi Community Hospital in the Anglican Diocese of Kinkiizi. Buy-A-Net uses $1.20 from each $7 donation to fund the distribution and education program. In the past, when nets were distributed by other organizations, they were used for things like fishing and wedding dresses because recipients didn’t know what to do with them. The other 80¢ goes to Buy-A-Net administration with its two paid staff members.
“Bed nets stop the bite of infected mosquitoes because they are most active at night while people sleep,” says Debra. “Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that was eradicated in North America by DDT, but half the people in the world — about 3.3 billion — are still vulnerable. And the most vulnerable are children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Somewhere in Africa, a mother loses her child to malaria every 30 seconds.”
As intolerable as the human cost of malaria is, so is the economic toll. The disease is not always fatal but it is often debilitating. Those who have it may be unable to work, and the productivity of those who do work is often compromised. It is an enormous strain on the health care system, children are often unable to attend school if a parent is unable to work because of the disease, even tourism and trade are compromised because of the threat of infection.
“There are tremendous social costs as well,” says Debra. “Malaria erodes families, devastates communities and nations. When we fight malaria we also fight poverty and illiteracy. The death rate from malaria in villages with nets is reduced by 95 per cent!”
When ACW president Joan Randal learned of the Buy-A-Net program and made arrangements for Debra to speak to the ACW, she started a Buy-A-Net campaign of her own, encouraging her friends, fellow members of the Red Hat Society and others to donate the cost of a net. She handed $434 to Debra at the meeting and assured her she was not finished yet. She also handed over other cheques from the diocesan ACW and individual branches that totaled $2,640.
“This is a $7 project,” Joan told the gathered ACW members. “We can all make a difference.”
Debra was moved to tears by the contributions and told Joan she was truly “Inspired by the power of one.”
Diocesan Communications
18 May 2010
