SLAM Benefit Concert at the Denver School of the Arts

On Thursday, September 25 the Tobatana Marimba band played a benefit concert at the Denver School of the Arts (DSA). Carly, a senior at DSA, organized the concert in order to kick-off the fund raising for next years Malaria Eradication Campaign in Botswana. The concert was a success with students and parents from DSA attending and $200 was donated for the purchase of mosquito nets!! We want to thank the members of Tobatana for traveling to DSA after a long day of work and playing for 1.5 hours. Some of the musicians live 50 miles away but they felt strongly enough about this concert to make the effort to be there. The crowd loved the music, danced and learned how serious malaria is in Botswana. Thank you Carly for organizing this event!

SLAM projects at Alexander Dawson School Colorado USA

The seventh grade SLAM group at Alexander Dawson School Colorado USA has been doing numerous things this year. The first step for us was to make a power point presentation that we would present to the Lower School (Kindergarten to Fourth grade), the fifth and sixth grade, and finally the seventh and eighth grade. The power point’s purpose was to educate and raise awareness about Malaria and also to notify people about the fundraising we would be doing. The power point had a big impact on the grades we presented it to especially the younger children, who could not believe some of the facts and statistics we were presenting to them.
Once the power point presentations were done we started a coin drive. A fundraising activity where different grades bring in coins and dollar bills to raise money for mosquito nets. The coin drive was run from Kindergarten to the Eighth grade. In the end whichever grade raised the most money won a pizza party. Except for the sixth grade they were so excited by the SLAM project that they decided to donate the money from their pizza party back into the coin drive! All together we raised a total of 957 dollars. This money will be used to buy mosquito nets for the families in Botswana.
We all look forward to working on this project more with you all in the future.

Sincerely, Riley and Anika
Alexander Dawson School, Colorado USA.

End Malaria Blue Ribbon Campaign in Nigeria

Dear all,

My name is Egbon Jabilee SS I), from MIND BUILDERS College in Abudu (Delta state, south-south Nigeria) it’s been a very long time since SYAHD team visited our school last year to introduce the MFI / SLAM Blue Ribbon campaign, the session was enlighten and educative to all students including our Science teachers (i.e. Biology, Physical health education, physics & chemistry), we pray that SYAHD team would re-visit our school and see how we run our SLAM activities perfectly. Our school principal always encourages us to organize malaria events (e.g. assembly message, foot ball match’s, environmental / clearing gutters and stagnant water within our school.

We’re introduce to Blog by SYAHD team, but we always find it difficult to visit café because we have to travel for about 15kilometre to the city, our school is located in village (away from city), since last year we organize 2 malaria events with the support our school teachers, and Mind Builders College Parent Association. This year we hope to establish a linkage and visited some schools nearby so that we can see how they can contribute immensely to reduce the malaria incidence.

Malaria really affect every one of us, and we hope this could become a history, we would continue to educate our fellow students in other schools, and members of community to take action. There is also need for SYAHD to provide mosquito nets, educational materials and share some experiences with us, so that we can be fully representers of MFI / SLAM global educational campaign for us (student), you are always remembered “Ahmad and Muhammad from SYAHD in Kano state”

On behalf of the entire SS 2 & 3 students of MIND BUILDERS College, our teachers and Principal, we hope this mail finds you well and your team / school students in northern Nigeria.

From MIND BUILDERS COLLEGE
Egbon Jabilee
(SS I Student)

Myths Concerning Malaria

I'm John , from Ivory Coast / Côte d'Ivoire, a french-speaking country in
> West Africa, situated between Liberia and Ghana ..just for those who may
> not locate us easily....
>
> I approve of SLAM and I joined only recently...Now Christaine is talking
> about myths, etc...
> It is interesting to note that in my country when you go to the rural areas
> and you ask the people what causes malaria, you'll hear all sorts of
> causes ...In most cases the word mosquito NEVER comes out..
> You get answers such as..........
> 1. When you work or walk for too long in the sun you get malaria
> 2. When you eat too much fatty foods like palm oil you get malaria
> 3..When you drink too much palm-wine, or when you eat too much of garden egg soup, etc, etc..
> There is a legend in parts of the country where it is believed that
> malaria is transmitted by WITCHCRAFT ........
> In one particular zone where this belief is very strong they have a vast
> expanse of marshy land where they grow RICE all year round....The mosquito
> population is actually very closely related to this agricultural practice,
> but.....
>
> This is why EDUCATION is very important and I believe that we can organize
> student leaders to go to the rural areas during the long vacations for
> example, to spread the CORRECT FACTS about the real cause of malaria.....
> Funny enough when the under-fives have serious malaria and they get to the
> convulsion stage,or when the child becomes stiff..... the parents rush the
> child to a FETISH PRIEST first, instead of going to the hospital or nearest
> clinic...They DON'T know that it is malaria.....So these are some of the
> information or facts we should be looking at to give and explain when we
> visit our rural folk....