Nets are Nice

…a FREE downloadable book for children about malaria and the role of mosquito nets in prevention.

This book by Gary Edson, with a forward by First Lady Laura Bush, is published by Malaria No More, in conjunction with Scholastic.

The Malaria No More campaign also has an informative ten minute video about malaria, its history and current initiatives to do something about malaria. (And here is my usual disclaimer that I am not promoting or endorsing any specific program or campaign. My hope, today is to bring attention to this disease and make space for a moment of preoccupation on others and this specific, prevalent and preventable disease which impacts so many people in the world.)

Whatever your opinion on the Malaria No More campaign (and I hope you’ll visit the website and think about the subject enough to form an opinion) I think this free book is a beautiful way to help American children think outside their little world to the bigger world. The photos are stunning, and the text is simple. There is a malaria fact sheet at the back of the book.

There is also a malaria knowledge quiz at the Malaria No More website.

If World Malaria Day seems irrelevant to you, or just one more world problem to think about when you are bombarded every day with world problems, I understand. I’m not into asking you to do something specific or predetermined about malaria. (Heaven forbid that I, who am so skeptical of campaigns, would start one of my own ).

On this, my third post of the day (that’s got to be some kind of record for me!), focusing on malaria, I’d like to leave you only with the suggestion of printing and reading this lovely little book and taking a few minutes to stop and recognize–to make space for thinking about–one particular type of suffering that affects a great many people in our world today, every day.

(Follow these links for Part One and Part Two of this three post focus for World Malaria day)