Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease that attacks a person’s blood supply. It is transmitted by mosquitoes at night, striking silently while people are asleep. The more times a person is bitten by infected mosquitoes, the greater their risk. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of malaria and can die as quickly as 24 hours after first experiencing symptoms. Symptoms include recurring chills, fever, and sometimes jaundice and anaemia. Although malaria is not always fatal to adults, the debilitating symptoms often prevent those stricken with it from working or taking care of family members–causing a serious economic burden to people already vulnerable to the effects of poverty.

So what does Malaria have to do with photography? Not much really. I've been trying to come up with a good way to tie this into the Corner (and there is a tie in, but you'll have to wait until Contest Corner Challenge #60 is announced), but what it honestly comes down to is that if you're into photography, that means you have some disposable income (let's face it, photography isn't a cheap hobby), and the most proven and cost-effective way to prevent malaria is by sleeping under a long-lasting insecticide-treated net (which we can purchase for only $7 each). I'll get to more on that below.

Facts about Malaria

• Every 30 seconds one child in Africa dies from malaria.
• Every day the disease kills 3,000 children— the equivalent of seven Boeing 747 plane crashes.
• Every year more than one million people die from the disease and 350-500 million people are infected.

A Preventable Disease

Even though malaria is preventable and treatable, it currently threatens over 40 per cent of the world's population. The majority of deaths from malaria are young children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. There is no vaccine against malaria; the best defence is prevention.

The most proven and cost-effective way to prevent malaria is by sleeping under a long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN). LLINs provide a protective barrier around families at night and kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes on contact when they are most likely to strike. A single net can protect one or more children for up to five years.

Why a long-lasting insecticide-treated net?

The LLIN is a net treated with a safe insecticide that is effective for three to five years or 20 washes. The nets are pre-treated and ready to use. The insecticide on LLINs has been approved and considered safe by the World Health Organization.

What Can We Do?

Right now, we can help protect a child, a family, a school or even an entire town in Africa from malaria — simply by purchasing mosquito nets. PhotographyCorner has teamed up with the Canadian Red Cross where we can purchase a net for $7 (with the exchange rate, that's only about $5.65 in US dollars). With the holidays coming up, maybe instead of buying more gifts, food and decorations, we can take what basically amounts to spare change and save a life instead.

I've set our goal as a community to purchase 200 nets. That's $1400 (around $1100 in US dollars). With almost 14,000 of us, that works out to around $.10 per person. And if we act now, our donation will have twice the impact, as all donations to the Malaria Bites Campaign will be matched up to one million dollars by the Pindoff Millennium Fund.

Sure it's great that we all have a place to get together and talk about and share our photography with each other. It's great that we have an active forum, free photo galleries and contests with thousands of dollars in prizes. But what if we gave just a little time, money and effort back? Is a life worth $7?

I've set up a tracking page where we can make donations and track our progress towards 200 nets. Can you make a contribution today? Blow me out of the water. We raised more than $2,500 for a new server for the Corner. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could raise that much for mosquito nets?

I'll keep the community updated here on the Corner Blog as to our progress, and I'll announce our final total on December 25th - Christmas Day.

So what are you waiting for? Go make a donation and safe a life!!