"Every day, 3,000 children under the age of five die from malaria; that’s one child every 30 seconds. In Africa, malaria causes about 20 per cent of all child deaths. Yet the transmission of the disease can be drastically reduced by something as simple as sleeping under an anti-malarial bed net." (UNICEF)

Several first year Geography students are fund-raising to support the "Spread the Net" campaign to prevent the transmission of malaria by hosting two movie nights on Nov 15 and 22. Details of the event are in the attached poster or contact Monika by email to pelz@shaw.ca

Spread the Net is a co-founded by Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer in partnership with UNICEF Canada to raise funds to buy 500,000 anti-malarial mosquito bed nets at $10 each for children in Liberia and Rwanda over the next two years.

 The bed nets UNICEF procures in Africa are made in Tanzania and are distributed through antenatal care clinics to pregnant women and through routine health visits to families with children. Bed nets are given to all pregnant women and children younger than five years of age with no limit per family, meaning that a family gets a net for each child and pregnant woman. The nets UNICEF procures are long-lasting insecticide treated nets, which last up to five years before requiring retreatment.

Details of the campaign can be found on www.unicef.ca or http://www.spreadthenet.org/