World Malaria Day 2018

by Bucky Rogers

Founder of Benjamin House Ministries

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Flu strain A, B, C, XYZ and everything in between has littered my Facebook feed this winter season.  It's everywhere.  I've watched as people lament getting it, their kids getting it, and a hundred home remedies to stop it or make it better.  Influenza can be deadly in a small portion of the elderly and very small children in the USA, but for the vast majority of people who get the flu, they feel like trash for a few days, then start getting back on their feet.

Where we live, in Uganda, Malaria is everywhere.  It makes up nearly half of all diagnoses and treatments from hospital and clinic visits.  It is the single highest cause of death, making up 1/3 of all deaths, globally.  Forty-two Ugandan children die every day due to Malaria.  In fact, during the time it will take me to write this blog, a child here will have taken their last breath because of a disease that is preventable and easily treatable.
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Forty-two Ugandan children die every day due to Malaria.

​I got malaria for the first time about a year ago today.  My wife, Julie, asked our son, Innocent, what having Malaria felt like. He told her, "It feels like your world is ending."  Within 2 hours I went from normal to barely being able to function.  I couldn't form coherent sentences.  By the time I got to the doctor, I passed out in the lobby and woke up hours later with an IV and Julie by my bedside.  It took nearly 7 days for me to feel well enough to even attempt normal activities and another 3 weeks to fully recover. The first month after we moved to Uganda, another missionary contracted Malaria and it went cerebral and he was in a coma within hours.  He died just a few weeks later.

It feels like your world is ending.

​Some of the best ways to prevent malaria are sleeping under a treated mosquito net, taking anti-malarial drugs, and avoiding mosquito breeding grounds at dusk.  Benjamin House, through our sponsorship program, is trying to ensure that the families under our care have every tool they need to escape this deadly disease.

Thank you for standing with us, always.

Click here to donate $10 to our World Malaria Day fund to provide a child with a mosquito net.
Click here to donate $25 or more to our World Malaria Day fund to provide a child with anti-malarial medication.
​Click here to learn more about Child Sponsorship.
Click here to Email us and register your church for this year's VBS for BHM fundraising theme: Fight the Bite.

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