Starve a mosquito, feed a family
Life for Emmanuel's family has improved drastically since they were given mosquito nets
As soon as I started using a net to sleep under, I stopped being sick
When Nigerian farmer Emmanuel Ikyegh was given a mosquito net, he hoped it would keep his children safe from malaria. He never bargained on it keeping their bellies full too.
Emmanuel is a happy man. His family is healthier than it has been in years, his children are in school, and he grows twice as much food as he used to. But things weren’t so great just a few years ago.
Before they were given mosquito nets, Emmanuel and his wife struggled to provide enough food to keep their children healthy. Neither could they afford the fees to send them to school. Life was a constant struggle for the family – and a huge factor in this was malaria.
Malaria is so common where the Ikyeghs live that rarely a week passed without someone in the family falling sick with the disease.
Malaria was particularly debilitating for Emmanuel and his wife because their immune systems were already weakened by HIV. They were ill at least once a fortnight, and often too weak to farm their land.
Lives transformed
But soon after receiving his mosquito nets, Emmanuel felt his strength returning. And within weeks, their lives had been transformed beyond recognition:
'As soon as I started using a net to sleep under, I stopped being sick. I can farm more now – I have a larger farm than before and my crops are properly weeded.
'This means that we grow more food for us to eat and we have more to sell. I grow yams, soya beans and oranges and we raise chickens. I would say that we are producing about twice as much on the farm compared to two years ago.
'At times I couldn’t afford the school fees for my children and had to take the oldest ones out of school for a year. But now they are all in school.'
Life for Emmanuel's family has improved drastically since they were given mosquito nets. And Emmanuel's wish is for every family to experience the same boost in health and wealth.
Today, you can help us make that happen in more communities like Emmanuel's.
So please send a net now.
