Bed nets save lives

Wali Balde lives in Kael Bessel in south east Senegal. This area is particularly swampy, and during the rainy season the country side is often flooded, causing frequent malaria outbreaks, as mosquitoes thrive in stagnant waters.

Wali is 12 and in grade five. He loves school and playing with his friends. However, he spent most of last season in bed with malaria.

“I will always remember what it felt like. I had a fever, I could barely feel my legs, the smell of food made me nauseous and I couldn’t keep anything in my stomach. It was hot outside but I remember being cold all the time. All I could think about was my friends who were playing without me and about all the classes I was missing. I was afraid I was not going to be able to follow at school once I went back.”

Diabouyel Kande, his mother, said, “It was a difficult time. I was spending all day long taking care of him. He wouldn’t eat anything I would make, he got so skinny. Nights were difficult; I would jump out of bed at his every movement. I was so scared I was going to lose him as a lot of children in our village have died of malaria, but thank God, he was healed.”

A couple of weeks later, “World Vision came and distributed bed nets to every household,” said Wali. “I had never had one and I didn’t believe that they were going to protect us from malaria. But the people told my family that we had to sleep under them every night for them to work.

“I have and I have not been sick once ever since I did! I want to say thank you to World Vision because, thanks to them, me and my family are safe. My brothers Djidere and Wando and my parents all sleep under a bed net as well.”

Smiling, his mother adds, “We pray that God will grant a long prosperous life to World Vision and that malaria will never bother us again.”

By Nathalie Fauveau