Bake sales, raffle proceeds help Red Cross battle malaria in Africa

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Local high school students are contributing to a project that has placed over three million bed nets to prevent malaria in four African countries.

Six Horton High School students began over a year ago to collect $1,470, which they donated recently to the Red Cross.

Teacher Dave Fuller said they were inspired after watching a documentary in class called Malaria Wars. “It moved the students and challenged some of them to pursue fundraising,” he said.

Entirely self-motivated, the six students held bake sales, a raffle and put out donation cans. They even went after a corporate donation from the LaFarge company.

Sabrina Berry says the Grade 11 students are not finished their fundraising efforts yet.

Last month the Canadian Red Cross supported the distribution of 1.4 million bed nets in Togo and Nigeria. Each one is a long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito net that went to families with children under five years old.

The distributions were coupled with measles and/or polio vaccinations, vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes at night. It is the number one killer of children in Africa.

Each $7 donation to the Red Cross covers the cost of one mosquito net, its distribution and follow-up visits to families in Africa. Valley residents can contact the Kentville office at 902-678-0415 for more information.