Fast Facts
- A child dies from malaria every ten seconds
- A $10 bednet can save two people
- An insecticide treated bednet lasts for five years.
Columbia University’s various student organizations are launching a major campaign to raise awareness about the fight against malaria in Africa.
"Here, then, is a weapon of mass salvation. The bed nets themselves cost about $6. The cost of bed net distribution per household is less than 50 cents. Including the cost of transportation from manufacturers to the villages and of follow up by trained volunteers, the total price of getting each net to the hut is under $10. Since the net lasts five years and typically two children sleep under it, the protection is about $1 per child per year. Roughly every hundred nets in use will save the life of one child a year and prevent many dozens of debilitating occurrences of malaria."
-From "Net Gains", Op-Ed by Jeffrey Sachs, New York Times, 29 April 2006
High school students in the New York Young Conservationists class determine the approximate near-shore marine biodiversity.