Local Teenagers Making A Difference? You Bet!
Mayo students fight malaria among African kids
5/10/2007 10:25:51 AM
By Edie Grossfield for The Post-Bulletin
If something as simple and cheap as $10 mosquito nets can save lives in Africa, then it's worth a little effort to provide them.
That's the decision a group of Mayo High School students made last month when they started a fundraiser to help battle malaria, the No. 1 killer of African children.
Members of two student groups, the Mayo International Relations Association (MIRA) and the Diversity Committee, started the fundraiser after reading about what malaria is doing to many African countries.
Malaria, spread by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people per year. Ninety percent of those who die are African children.
And, due to the deaths and incapacitating effects of the disease, malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year in lost productivity, according to Nothing But Nets, a campaign working with the United Nations Foundation to raise money for mosquito nets.
Wanting to contribute to the campaign, Mayo students set an initial goal to raise $1,500 by engaging students in the school's social studies classes. However, in less than a month, they have surpassed $4,000. That translates to 400 mosquito nets, each of which can protect a family of four, said Travis Bain, a Mayo social studies teacher who has been motivating his 135 students to collect money for the campaign.
Matching funds
Factor in a 100-percent match by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the students have provided protection for 800 families, or up to 3,200 people.
*****
Students donated their own money, asked parents and relatives, and went door-to-door in their neighborhoods to collect the money.
*****
How to help
The Mayo High School campaign for Nothing But Nets, to help save African people from malaria, ends Friday. To contribute, send a check payable to Mayo High School and indicate on the check or in a note that it is for the malaria fundraiser. The school's address is 1420 11th Ave. S.E., Rochester, 55904.
Contributions also can be made directly to Nothing But Nets on the campaign's Web site at www.nothingbutnets.net.
Read the entire article here:
5/10/2007 10:25:51 AM
By Edie Grossfield for The Post-Bulletin
If something as simple and cheap as $10 mosquito nets can save lives in Africa, then it's worth a little effort to provide them.
That's the decision a group of Mayo High School students made last month when they started a fundraiser to help battle malaria, the No. 1 killer of African children.
Members of two student groups, the Mayo International Relations Association (MIRA) and the Diversity Committee, started the fundraiser after reading about what malaria is doing to many African countries.
Malaria, spread by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people per year. Ninety percent of those who die are African children.
And, due to the deaths and incapacitating effects of the disease, malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year in lost productivity, according to Nothing But Nets, a campaign working with the United Nations Foundation to raise money for mosquito nets.
Wanting to contribute to the campaign, Mayo students set an initial goal to raise $1,500 by engaging students in the school's social studies classes. However, in less than a month, they have surpassed $4,000. That translates to 400 mosquito nets, each of which can protect a family of four, said Travis Bain, a Mayo social studies teacher who has been motivating his 135 students to collect money for the campaign.Matching funds
Factor in a 100-percent match by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the students have provided protection for 800 families, or up to 3,200 people.
*****
Students donated their own money, asked parents and relatives, and went door-to-door in their neighborhoods to collect the money.
*****
How to help
The Mayo High School campaign for Nothing But Nets, to help save African people from malaria, ends Friday. To contribute, send a check payable to Mayo High School and indicate on the check or in a note that it is for the malaria fundraiser. The school's address is 1420 11th Ave. S.E., Rochester, 55904.
Contributions also can be made directly to Nothing But Nets on the campaign's Web site at www.nothingbutnets.net.
Read the entire article here:
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