ELCA observes World Malaria Day with special campaign appeal

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In observance of World Malaria Day April 25, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is emphasizing its
commitment to help bring an end to malaria-related deaths with a week-
long effort to raise $250,000 for the ELCA Malaria Campaign. The money
raised April 22-29 will help spur the ELCA’s anti-malaria efforts in
Uganda, where the disease is the leading cause of death among children
under the age of 5.
“Gifts given to the ELCA Malaria Campaign this week will be
designated for malaria programming in Uganda, where malaria is a growing
and urgent problem,” said Jessica Nipp Hacker, ELCA Malaria Campaign
coordinator.
“In the district of Katakwi, Uganda, malaria is the number one
killer of young children. The Lutheran World Federation’s malaria
program, supported by (these) gifts to the ELCA Malaria Campaign, will
impact 42,000 people in Katakwi,” she said. The ELCA is the federation’s
only member church from the United States.
Through the campaign, rolled out by the 2011 Churchwide Assembly,
ELCA members have committed to raise $15 million by 2015 to help Lutheran
churches in Africa in their efforts to prevent and treat malaria and to
educate communities about the disease. To date the campaign has raised
$7.2 million.
Although malaria is preventable and treatable, every year more than
200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa become infected with the disease
and more than 600,000 people die, many of these children under the age of
5.
In March, a group of ELCA members from across the country traveled
to southern Africa to visit Lutheran companion churches and to see
firsthand the impact their donations have made to help contain the deadly
disease. Working with 11 churches in Africa, the campaign provides for
the distribution of mosquito nets, insecticides, medication, health care,
education and more.
“This ministry is very important to me as a member of the ELCA,”
said trip participant the Rev. Steve Herder, pastor of Ascension Lutheran
Church in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
“The Lutheran leaders in the (African) countries we visited are
doing amazing work in education, prevention, treatment, capacity-building
and promoting sustainability. Our ELCA leaders taught us about the
mission model of accompaniment, and how we are walking together with our
sisters and brothers in Christ around the world. Much progress is being
made in the fight against malaria, yet there is still much to do,” he
said.
“World Malaria Day is a wonderful opportunity for people all around
the world to come together to commemorate the lives that have been lost
due to malaria, to celebrate the global progress that has been made in
controlling malaria and to renew our commitment to making malaria
history. The ELCA is proud to be one of many active partners in the
global movement to prevent and treat malaria,” said Nipp Hacker.
More information about the ELCA Malaria Campaign is available at
www.ELCA.org/MalariaDay.