Public Health Students Fight Against Malaria
Deadline to donate to SPH’s Beantown ’Skeeter Beater Repeater team is Friday
Last year, students from BU’s School of Public Health pledged to fight malaria after their classmate Jessica Kraft (SPH’07) became infected with the mosquito-borne infection while working for the Peace Corps in Mozambique. Kraft recovered, but she knew that many people don’t: malaria kills up to three million people a year, according to the Against Malaria Foundation.
“Jessica knew that many of the people who contract malaria don’t have access to the care she received, and she wanted to do something about it,” says Rachel Pitek (SPH’09), the curriculum coordinator for the SPH epidemiology department and president-elect of the SPH Rotaract Club, a service-oriented group that partners with the Rotary Club of Boston.
Kraft discovered the online competition Madness Against Malaria, a fundraiser modeled after the annual NCAA basketball tournament. Now, the SPH Rotaract team, the Beantown ’Skeeter Beater Repeater, is competing to bring in the most donations, for the second year in a row, and has made it to the final round, known as the Mad Bowl. Thus far, the team has raised $6,910.21.
For every $5 donated, one long-lasting insecticidal mosquito net, also known as a LLIN, is purchased and distributed in areas of the world most affected by malaria, especially parts of Africa. The nets, treated with insecticides that kill bugs on contact, hang over beds and protect children and families while they sleep.
The competition is global, with 234 teams participating and 6,728 people involved. Beantown ’Skeeter Beater Repeater has triumphed over teams from Norway and from Merrill Lynch, but its biggest rival at the moment is Peacing It Together, a group from Fort Washington, Pa. Thus far, the competition has raised $147,275, enabling the purchase of 29,455 nets. Once the donations are tallied, donors can track the region where their money is spent.
After last year’s victory, Pitek, along with Rotaract president Eva Koehler (SPH’08) and club advisor Joseph Anzalone, director of the SPH international health department’s program management unit, decided to enter again in 2008 to defend their title.
The Beantown ’Skeeter Beater Repeater team is asking for donations from the BU community before the fundraiser’s deadline of Friday, June 20. To donate, click here.
Amy Laskowski can be reached at amlaskow@bu.edu.
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