World Malaria Day 2021

Every death from Malaria is preventable.

Yep, every single one.

Nobody need die from malaria, but in total around 400,000 people die each year from this disease, and more than 200 million fall ill. 70% of those who die from malaria are children, and it is the single biggest cause of death of pregnant women in the world.

Pretty chilling stats aren’t they? That’s why Kabode is committed to taking real, provable action to help prevent malaria. It has been proven that prevention and treatment are the best course of action to impact these numbers and bring them down to where they should be - zero. That’s why we donate a mosquito net for every Kabode product sold.

Why use mosquito nets?

Before the use of mosquito nets became common practice in Africa, three times as many people were infected with malaria annually. Nets are a proven way to reduce the number of malaria infections and prevent deaths. Malaria is transmitted through bites from certain mosquitos who are carrying the malaria parasite. When hungry mosquitos fancy a meal of blood they find an animal, possibly a human, and tuck in, passing the malaria parasite into that human’s bloodstream at the same time and thus passing infection from person to person.

Mosquitos are most active at night, and commonly feed between 10pm and 2am, when humans are typically lying still and sleeping. In the hot temperatures of the tropics many people sleep in light sheets with their arms, legs and faces exposed, so plenty of flesh for hungry mosquitos to snack on!

Insect nets are a very simple but effective way to create a barrier against mosquitos, without discomfort for sleeping people. The most effective type is treated with a long-lasting insecticide to provide extra protection in case of any little gaps.

The effects of using a mosquito net are proven and well documented - for every 600 nets put in use over beds one child’s life is saved and 500 to 1000 cases of malaria are prevented. An insecticide-treated mosquito net costs just $2, lasts for three to four years, and on average protects two people from infection. It’s a simple and inexpensive prevention method, and so it’s shocking that malaria is still such a huge problem. Unfortunately, it is a reflection of the economy of those most affected - whilst many in the UK would easily be able to afford a few pence a year to protect their family, those in the most deprived areas of Africa simply can’t choose to do that when they are struggling for food and clean water.

The Kabode Mosquito Net Donation Programme

As parents ourselves, we were so shocked and saddened when we read all these stats and really started to understand the scale of the problem, and how many children’s lives were needlessly being lost to it. We are determined to use our business to help, so we began looking for ways to do that. We decided we didn’t want to just give cash donations to a large charity, we wanted to do something traceable with real and tangible results. So, we decided that for every Kabode product sold we will donate a child’s mosquito net to those who need them. We are supporting a registered charity who fund and distribute insecticide treated mosquito nets to the communities who need them across Africa. The aid organisation ensures that the nets are properly distributed and used, they track where the nets go and monitor and report on their use and impact. By donating to this aid organisation, we can be confident that the money donated from each Kabode sale directly goes to mosquito nets which go to people who need them. Our first donation of 107 nets will be distributed in October this year, to Mulumbu, a city in the Lomami Province in Congo. With your support we will be able to protect 193 people.

As a small business we take our corporate social responsibility seriously, and we are passionate about providing full visibility of the impact our charitable partnership is having. There will be no fluffy marketing chat and greenwashing here!

World Malaria Day

Each year the 25th of April is World Malaria Day. This global campaign is internationally recognised, and aims to highlight the efforts that have been made to tackle malaria and celebrate advances, as well as raise awareness and encourage everybody to support the efforts to eliminate this disease.

Given the economic aspect of the malaria issue it’s important that all countries remain aware of the scale of the problem, as those in the western world are in a position to help.

Half of the world lives at risk of malaria every day, and it costs a child’s life every two minutes, even though it is totally preventable and treatable. World Malaria Day is coordinated by the RBM Partnership To End Malaria, a global platform which brings together over 500 partners in a joined-up effort to take action and share resources to finally wipe out the disease.

They say;
“Over the past two decades we’ve made great progress in the malaria fight, saving more than 7 million lives and preventing over 1 billion malaria cases.

World Malaria Day 2021 will unify and build on the ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’ movement and the ‘Draw the Line Against Malaria’ youth focused campaign. This year’s theme, "Zero Malaria - Draw the Line Against Malaria", will explore and connect malaria elimination and malaria in high-burden settings.

The objectives for this year's World Malaria Day are:
● Highlight the successes of countries in the malaria fight.
● Inspire a new group of countries that have the potential to eliminate the disease by 2025.
● Demonstrate that zero malaria is within reach for all countries.”
Source: https://endmalaria.org/worldmalariaday2021

How You Can Help Fight Malaria

By purchasing a Kabode product you will already be helping, as you will fund the donation and distribution of one child’s mosquito net, which will go directly to a child at risk of malaria.

Other things you can do include;
● Light up monuments around the world on 25 April 2021 to mark World Malaria Day
● Visit the interactive site https://zeromalaria.org/ to leave a message and join in the global World Malaria digital campaign to show your support
● Share World Malaria Day posts on social media to keep the awareness going (keep an eye on the Kabode channels for content to share, or share this article!)

Remember, Malaria could be eradicated within one generation, if only those affected had the money and resource to take action. Let’s use our good fortune to help them, together.