Nursing students help curb malaria deaths

By Marcia Porter | Dec. 9, 2014

Sarah Kaleigh and JessicaWhen School of Nursing (SON) students launched Spread the Net at Memorial in 2012, they had hoped to raise $1,000 to help fight malaria deaths in Africa.

Not only did they surpass their fundraising goal, a new report released by the United Nations health agency shows the students helped to contribute to a dramatic drop in malaria deaths.

The report states there has been a significant decrease in deaths due to malaria thanks to the efforts of many, including Spread the Net.

What started as a project for Dr. Sandra MacDonald's fourth-year nursing course in complex care became not only a project to raise awareness about malaria, but also became a cause that SON students, faculty and staff got behind.

The students were thrilled when they raised well over $5,000 for insecticidal bed nets -- enough to help 500 families in Guinea, West Africa.

"We are ecstatic," said Sarah Whalen, when she launched the campaign back in 2012. "We received much more support than we expected or could hope for, from family, friends and faculty. We are very, very proud of our work and the contribution that we could make on behalf of Memorial and our donors to Spread the Net."

Ms. Whalen is now an SON alumna. She and fellow nursing students who launched the campaign on the St. John's campus in 2012 had seen first-hand the impact of malaria in Africa.

"I have been to Kenya and Malawi where malaria is present and it is heartbreaking to see the devastation that malaria causes. Something as simple as a $10 mosquito net is out of reach for most families and it can prevent such terrible disease," said Ms. Whalen.

Ms. Whalen's team included nursing students Kaleigh Newton and Luke Redmond from the SON, and Jessica Bailey from the Centre for Nursing Studies.

"During my time in Fort Portal, a rural town in Uganda, I had the opportunity to meet the most amazing people," said Ms. Newton. "The people I had the privilege to speak to during my stay are a huge reason why when Sarah came to me I was so inclined to be a part of the Spread the Net campaign."

The students' campaign was wholeheartedly endorsed by Dr. MacDonald and others in the SON.

The campaign was the second time in recent years that the Memorial community had taken up the cause to help end malaria deaths through Spread the Net. Back in 2008 students at Grenfell Campus raised just over $3,000 to raise money for mosquito nets.

The new report urges the global community to remain vigilant and continue supporting efforst to curb malaria deaths.


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