Why?

A question I get asked frequently while meeting people around Chicago is “Why?”

Why do I do this work when the people dying of malaria are so far away?

Why do we try to mobilize different faiths to come together, aren’t they doing enough on their own?

Why should the average person be interested?

These are honest questions, they are real questions, and they are hard questions.

I do this because comprehensive aid programming to countries affected by malaria is working. Margaret Chan, Director of the World Health Organization, says we can be “cautiously optimistic” about the progress being made. She says, in the World Malaria Report for 2009, “Development aid for health is working. The global momentum that has been built to tackle malaria is extraordinary.” She visited the same sites in Tanzania a few of us Fellows got to visit mere weeks before we arrived, and she was excited by what she saw and the massive steps that are taking place at health centers and hospitals and research facilities to make malaria a thing of the past. We were excited too; and inspired by the many people involved in this fight on the ground in Tanzania. I do this work because the statistics of hundreds of thousands of people dying of malaria is mind numbing, but when you think about how those numbers have faces and names, it becomes a little more personal. Godlisten is a beautiful ten-month old baby and he was in the hospital for the third time with malaria when I met him in Tanzania. Patrick was fifteen and told me from his dirty hospital bed that he had already missed over a week of school due to malaria. He said he has had it many times in his life. It is estimated Africa loses over $8 billion a year in productivity due to this treatable and preventable illness. I do this because I have seen how faith communities can join together and make a difference. My team interviewed two high school aged boys in Tanzania, one Christian and one Muslim, who are really good friends and the presidents of their perspective faith community clubs. They told us how they want to unite their two groups to work on health issues in their community. They were 16 and 17 years old. I do this because malaria is a problem that disproportionately affects poor people, and health is a basic human right everyone should have access to. 

Those one million lives we lose every year from malaria are individual people with dreams and goals and families who just happen to be born in a place where mosquitoes carry malaria, and money and doctors are scarce. When I think of those people as my own parents or siblings, my desire to help drastically increases.

If you live in the Chicago area, try to come to one of our events in the next few months and see how you can get more involved. Or maybe just simply read up on the plight of people with malaria, and think about what it would be like if you were in their shoes. Or, consider donating $10 for a bed net to Malaria No More on the top right of our website. It can save up to a family of four. Lives are on the line and, the good news is, we as people of faith get to be a part of the solution.

Amy