Nothing But Nets is a campaign of the United Nations Foundation. The nets are manufactured by Sumitomo of Japan and the Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen. The nets are treated with insecticides that kill mosquitoes, which spread malaria.
The campaign collects donations. People are asked to give at least ten dollars. Elizabeth McKee Gore heads the campaign says the nets cost about five dollars; the other half of the donation covers training and distribution costs.
Local health workers are taught how to hang and take care of the nets, then they train their neighbors. The campaign says each net lasts up to seven years.
Nothing But Nets was launched two years ago after sports writer Rick Reilly wrote about malaria in Sports Illustrated magazine. He urged his readers to donate money to the United Nations Foundation for its efforts to buy treated bed nets. Since then, the campaign has raised more than twenty million dollars. The National Basketball Association, the United Methodist Church and other groups have joined the campaign.
So far, the campaign says it has supplied more than seven hundred thousand nets to children and their families in Africa. The executive director says parts of Africa will have received more than two million nets by the end of this year. Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia and Ivory Coast have already received supplies.
The Web site nothingbutnets.net points out that a net treated with insecticide offers about twice the protection of an untreated net. When enough houses have treated nets, the combined effect can make a whole community safer from mosquitoes.
Click audio files for more detail in health report in Lao.
