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Nets bring gift of life to Côte d’Ivoire Eleanor L. Colvin, Nov 28, 2008
COURTESY PHOTO
Five-year-old Wilfried Konan shows signs of his battle with malaria.
By Eleanor L. Colvin Special Contributor
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire—The gift of a long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito net came as a welcome relief for 5-year-old Wilfried Kouakou Konan. He struggled with an outbreak of painful, malaria-induced pimples on the day nets were distributed in his village through a United Methodist health campaign.
His aunt, Martine Kamenan, waited in line for three hours with Wilfried and his 3-year-old brother to receive the nets. She knew the boys’ lives depended on it. “These two often have malaria, especially this one,” she said through an interpreter, motioning to Wilfried. “He always refuses to eat when this happens, because he vomits everything.”
Their mother was home sick with malaria. She had received treatment at a hospital, but wasn’t recovering well—further evidence that the best treatment is prevention. While malaria has largely been eradicated in the U.S., between 350 and 500 million people are still infected each year, mostly in Africa. More than 1 million of those infected die, and 75 percent of those deaths are children under the age of five, whose immune systems are not yet strong enough to battle the disease.
The Nov. 11-15 health campaign, led by the Texas and Côte d’Ivoire Conferences of the United Methodist Church, served more than 700,000 children and marked the first time churches have participated in on-the-ground delivery of nets. The conferences partnered with the denomination’s General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Communications’ Global Health Initiative and the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign.
Other groups helped distribute nets, measles vaccines, de-worming medication and Vitamin A supplements to boost immunity. More than 1,000 Ivoirian volunteers, trained by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), staffed distribution points in 18 districts. They were assisted by 35 volunteers from the Texas Conference.
As many as 500 families waited in line for nets each day, many of them standing more than six hours in the scorching sun. “Giving each child a net was like the first time I ever served communion,” said the Rev. Nancy Kellond, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Texas. “I knew the nets, in some way, represented the gift of Christ for every child, and I never wanted to stop. I handed it to the child as if it were something sacred. As they looked at me with those big eyes and arms outstretched, they seemed to know, indeed, that it was sacred, and they received it that way.”
Hundreds of school children sang and danced when the health drive began Nov. 11 in the village of Alépé.
“As United Methodists, we believe we are called not only to speak, but—by our actions—demonstrate God’s love,” Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston said to a crowd of some 1,200 people. “We are grateful for Bishop Benjamin Boni and the United Methodist Church in Côte d’Ivoire for this new partnership and new possibilities for life here in Côte d’Ivoire.”
Among those celebrating the widespread impact of the health campaign was Komla Siamevi, Côte d’Ivoire’s representative to the World Health Organization (WHO). “This is the first time such a big event has taken place in the Ivory Coast,” Dr. Siamevi said in French. “All you are doing will contribute to the healthiness of children in Côte d’Ivoire.”
According to a WHO study released in 2006, 91 percent of children infected with malaria die from the disease. However, less than 3 percent of children in Côte d’Ivoire sleep under mosquito nets; during an April 2008 visit to Houston, the country’s minister of health, Dr. Allah Kouadio Remi, said it would take 7 million nets to cover those children.
“Why are we waiting for a malaria vaccine?” Dr. Siamevi said. “One of the best ways to prevent malaria in children under five and pregnant women is to enable them to sleep under an insecticide-treated net.”
Within moments of receiving nets, many people tried an array of tactics to install them. One group of women took down a clothesline to use as a means of securing a net. In other villages, people tore scraps of fabric to tie the nets to the bamboo ceilings of their homes.
On the Texas team’s first day in Africa, heavy rains left standing puddles of water on roads littered with crater-like potholes. (Some say the potholes are remnants of the country’s recent civil war.)
“The holes are ideal breeding places for mosquitoes,” said Adrianna Logalbo, deputy director of partnership alliances for the UN Foundation, who participated in the net distribution. “That’s what makes our timing none too soon.”
Melissa Crutchfield, UMCOR’s assistant general secretary for International Disaster Response, added that the biggest reports of malaria cases occur after each rainy season. In Côte d’Ivoire, the most significant rainy season hits in the spring, from April to June. The health campaign took place during the “petite rainy season” of the fall.
Long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets work to stop the spread of malaria in two ways. The nets stop mosquitoes from biting during the night, and the insecticide kills the mosquitoes when they land on it.
While medicines exist to treat and prevent the disease, they are often expensive and not widely available. “We would not be able to pay for the nets or vaccines if they cost,” Adjara Ouatara, who learned of the campaign at her mosque, said through an interpreter.
Ms. Ouatara, who lives in a small fishing village, brought four children to receive nets and vaccines, including her nieces and nephews. Their mother, Ms. Ouatara’s sister, has been sick with malaria for three months.
The bed nets are effective for about five years. Nets purchased through Nothing But Nets cost $10 to manufacture, distribute and educate people on how to use them.
The United Methodist Church is a founding partner of Nothing But Nets, along with the National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares and Sports Illustrated. Other partners include VH1, The Mark J. Gordon Foundation, AOL Black Voices, The Wasserman Foundation, Major League Soccer’s MLS W.O.R.K.S., the Women’s National Basketball Association, and Rotarians’ Action Group on Malaria.
“This is more than a partnership,” said the Rev. Cynthia Harvey, director of the Texas Conference Center for Missional Excellence. “It’s a beautiful connection created by God—brothers and sisters, hand-in-hand across the globe to bring new life to Côte d’Ivoire.”
Ms. Harvey co-led the Texas delegation with the Rev. Rick Goodrich, assistant to the bishop. In a sermon at Marcory UMC in Côte d’Ivoire’s Treíschville District, she shared how the journey exceeded her expectations.
“Never would we have imagined that we would be brought to tears as we approached a site with more people than we could count,” Ms. Harvey said in the sermon. “I know Jesus never doubted he could feed [the 5,000], but I must confess that I wondered whether we had enough—enough nets, enough vaccine. But, I was reminded we had a special gift, the greatest gift we brought that we could never run out of—the love of Christ.”
And, as in the scripture, the resources did not run out. When the distribution was completed on Nov. 15, the surplus of nets was shipped to Methodist boarding schools and to the Methodist Hospital at Dabou for continued protection of its patients and further distribution.
“For me it’s a dream come true,” said Bishop Huie. “I didn’t know—and neither did Bishop Boni—that this partnership would ever be this big, this wonderful, this life-giving, this expansive and blessed by God.
“We started out with a seed. First it sprouted branches and now it’s bearing fruit. It’s come to symbolize new possibilities for the United Methodist Church.”
Ms. Colvin is the director of communications for the Texas Conference.
COURTESY PHOTO
Within moments of receiving nets, many people tried an array of tactics to install them. One group of women took down a clothesline to use as a means of securing a net. In other villages, people tore scraps of fabric to tie the nets to the bamboo ceilings of their homes.
beautiful connection created by God—brothers and sisters, hand-in-hand across the globe to bring new life to Côte d’Ivoire.”
