Sobering News

We just received word that one of the first grade students at the Kasompe Community School of Peace died last week from malaria.   We keep looking at the little faces in the pictures we took last month and asking "Is it this lively little girl?"  "Or maybe that one?"  They all looked so full of life when we were there.  And now we have this sad news.  One little girl became quite ill with malaria while we were at the school and a Kafwa, Leontina, took money from our emergency fund to take her to the Dr. to be treated.  Fortunately, that case ended well.  We don't have any details about the child that died but it is possible she became ill at home and wasn't taken for treatment. 

Treatment is so inexpensive by U.S. standards.  It is our understanding that in many cases, the clinic visit and the medication are free.  The stumbling block frequently is the lack of money (less than $1) for transportation to the clinic.  According to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, "There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than a million deaths. Around 90% of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children. Malaria is Africa's leading cause of under-five mortality (20%) and constitutes 10% of the continent's overall disease burden. It accounts for 40% of public health expenditure, 30-50% of inpatient admissions, and up to 50% of outpatient visits in areas with high malaria transmission."  Unfortunately, malaria treatment gets more complicated each year as resistant strains crop up making medication ineffective.

But those are all statistics.  We are mourning the loss of a specific, bright eyed child who had her educational  and life journey end before it hardly got started.