Progress Update & Creative Plans

Thanks to the churches and individuals that have given, pledged, or set goals since Annual Conference, we continue to make tremendous progress toward our fundraising goals:

• The overall Imagine No Malaria campaign has raised $53 million in gifts and pledges toward its total goal of $75 million. 
• Rocky Mountain Conference has received gifts, pledges, and church goals totaling $594,121 so far, which puts us at 49.5% of our goal! 
• This includes an individual matching gift of $50,000 from a donor affiliated with a Denver-area church, and another $45,500 committed by members of that church toward the matched amount so far!

Churches are also making plans to Advocate, Raise Funds, and Engage Community in all kinds of creative ways, including:

Cameron UMC volunteers with Kunle Taiwo, Sarah and Kristi
Kinnison, at the (Denver) South Pearl Street Farmer's Market

• Hosting Imagine No Malaria as part of their booth at the weekly farmer's market (Cameron Church, Denver)
• A knit/crochet-a-thon at Platteville UMC
• Donations from an annual Trunk or Treat event, plus a "Whack a Mosquito" activity involving beating up an old car (First UMC, Longmont)
• Benefit concerts featuring church and/or community musicians (Mountain View, Boulder; Good Shepherd, Thornton)
• A Western Slope youth camp-out where participants have to solve real-life problems as family groups based on assigned identities and circumstances faced by families in Africa

I know many other churches are planning creative and exciting activities - please email me at kerry [at] rmcumc.com to share your story, along with any photos or videos you may take!

And if you want to learn more about how to get involved, consider joining us for one of the following training/information sessions (see full list here):

August 29	Thursday	6:30pm	Hope UMC, Greenwood Village, CO
September 12	Thursday	6:00pm	First UMC, Durango, CO
September 13	Friday	6:30pm	Hotchkiss UMC, Hotchkiss, CO
September 18	Wednesday	6:30pm	First UMC, Greeley, CO

Together, we are transforming and saving lives!

Advocate: Lift up your voice!

The need to not only sustain but increase global funding for malaria control efforts is tremendous. The United Methodist Church will raise $75 million by 2015, a major undertaking for our denomination. But the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a total of $5.1 billion is needed each year in order to continue making progress against the disease. Read more about the need in this WHO report.

As Katie Dawson, Iowa Field Coordinator for Imagine No Malaria, explains,

While the money we raise with Imagine No Malaria makes a huge impact, one of the things you can DO to help our effort is to advocate for global health funds from our U.S. government.

The budgets from the President, House and Senate for 2014 all include $1.65 billion for the Global Fund and between $650-670 million for the President's Malaria Initiative.

Those funds are available for our United Methodist conferences in Africa, our health boards, our hospitals and clinics to receive through grants. Because of our work raising funds and our incredible distribution and connection on the ground, we are a voice at the table with the Global Fund.

Talk to YOUR legislator in support of funding for global health in the budget to help save lives.

Some 100 anti-malaria advocates visited Capitol Hill in
December 2012 to speak to legislators about global health
funding.

While phone calls and hand-written letters still have the greatest impact in conveying how important the topic is to you, you can also sign an online petition in about a minute at the General Board of Church and Society's "Take Action" site.

Proverbs 31:8-9 offers this instruction (from The Message paraphrase by Eugene Peterson):

“Speak up for the people who have no voice,
    for the rights of all the down-and-outers.
Speak out for justice!
    Stand up for the poor and destitute!”

How will you lift up your voice on behalf of those who have no voice? Join us in advocating for global health funding to fight malaria!

We are making progress - and the need continues!

In the last month or so, two very different news reports regarding the fight against malaria have received significant attention.

First, in July, the BBC and Public Radio International aired a story (Bed Nets for Malaria: Losing the Arms Race?) that raised serious questions about whether bed nets were making genuine and sustainable progress in reducing malaria infections, because mosquitoes in some areas were shown to be developing resistance to the primary insecticide with which the nets are treated.

Rev. Larry Hollon, General Secretary of United Methodist Communications, wrote a thoughtful response to the questions raised in the BBC article. Rev. Hollon contended that malaria experts had long anticipated the problems now being observed, and that this evidence demonstrates the importance of a more comprehensive, holistic approach to eradicating malaria. This is one of many reasons that Imagine No Malaria goes beyond just bed nets to include other methods of prevention, alongside diagnosis and treatment, education, and communication strategies.

Then last week, CNN.com reported on a breakthrough in U.S. efforts to develop a malaria vaccine. A study conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on a vaccine developed by Maryland-based company Sanaria showed highly promising results, but the initial trials were quite small, involving just 57 volunteers, and more extensive field testing is required before the drug can be considered scientifically proven in order to be approved for distribution - a process that could take 5-10 years. 

This development is very encouraging in thinking about the big picture of preventing malaria infections in future, although the requirement to receive five intravenous doses of the vaccine could make it difficult to administer widely in areas of very low incomes and lack of infrastructure like roads. Other researchers around the world are working on different approaches to a vaccine (see, for example, this CDC page.) However, the length of time before these vaccines come on the market, even if they prove very successful, makes it all the more important that we keep up our efforts to reduce malaria infections through prevention and education, and to relieve suffering through diagnosis and treatment.

Ending deaths from malaria in Africa is no small undertaking. This disease has been a scourge of humanity for thousands of years, but we know that it can be done because it has been done in the United States and other developed countries. What is needed to accomplish the same goal in Africa is, quite simply, the will to dedicate resources to ease the suffering of the poor who cannot otherwise afford quality health care, in order to enable more families, more communities, more nations to live life to the fullest - something that Jesus cared quite a bit about.

You can donate to Imagine No Malaria here or here, or text MALARIA RMC to 27722 to give $10. Thanks for helping us save lives!