A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, while 627,000 died of malaria in 2012, mostly infants, children and pregnant women. (image: US Army Africa/flickr)
SEOUL, Korea, April 30, 2014 (Korea Bizwire) – Commemorating World Malaria Day, which came on April 25th, “Ki-Heung Service Area,” an expressway rest area in the south of Seoul, took an initiative to prevent Malaria for locals and children in Uganda.
“World Share,” an overseas relief agency, teamed up with the rest area to hold a “Mosquito Net Donation Campaign for African Children in Poverty.” The charity group has sponsored mosquito net giving events since 2009.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 3.3 billion people, half the world’s population, are at risk of malaria. A total of 207 million malaria cases were reported in 2012; a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, while 627,000 died of malaria in 2012, mostly infants, children and pregnant women. Approximately 40 per cent of the world population, mostly those living in the world’s poorest countries, is at risk of malaria.
The campaign took place in a Congo refugee camp in Uganda, a malaria endemic area. The refugee camp is sheltering 20,000 refugees from the Congo, who have fled from a long-running civil war at the risk of losing their lives, and are now suffering from malnutrition and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The rest area provided mosquito nets to 400 families in the camp, with priorities to those who have a new-born, a pregnant mother, or a person with AIDS as a family member.
An official of the rest area said, “It has been our pleasure to hold the campaign with World Share for four years in a row. We wish that the Africans who are in hostile conditions to not to lose hope in their lives.”
An official of World Share said, “For its high mortality rate, malaria is easy to prevent with mosquito nets. The nets sponsored by the Ki-Heung rest area will be very valuable to residents and children of the camp.”
Good Samaritans in Ki-Heung Expressway Rest Area have been doing their parts in preventing the disease of Malaria from spreading across the African region, offering mosquito nets for the people in Uganda. (image: Ki-heung Expressway Rest Area)
Written by J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
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