A young Cote d’Ivoire boy named Moussa* came to a clinic carried in his father’s arms. He’d been suffering with an illness for several weeks and was not getting better.
Suspecting malaria, the Project C.U.R.E. clinic staff immediately tested Moussa. The test came back positive.
“We were able to test and treat on the spot!” Lauren Mitchell, director of clinics for Project C.U.R.E., told us. “We were able to provide medication to him because we had purchased CoArtem through Blessings International. In the past…we did not have this medication and were helpless to provide treatment.”
From that moment, Moussa’s healing began. Little did he know,however, his recovery story didn’t start just that day.
- “The availability of CoArtem is SO important to our work of saving lives and decreasing the pain and suffering of those we work with in West Africa and India.” Lauren Mitchell, Director of Clinics, Project C.U.R.E.
Before the packet of the antimalarial crossed the ocean, or was even pulled from Blessings International’s shelves, the price of this one life-saving dose of medication was covered by donors.
Just two months before Moussa and his father came to the Project C.U.R.E. clinic, Blessings International did an appeal, asking individuals to “sponsor” teams by providing for the cost of antimalarial medications. Donors gave over $2,250, of which only $5.57 was enough to provide Moussa with Artemether/Lumefantrine (CoArtem).
Fast forward to Project C.U.R.E.’s last day in-clinic, when Moussa’s father brought him back and expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the help and support. Moussa was now able to stand on his own…and he was smiling.
“Both the dad and the child thanked us profusely,” Lauren told us. “The dad said, ‘Without you and your team, my son might have died. Thank you so much for coming here and providing the care that you did.’”
Even if they are certain of a malaria diagnosis, medical teams are unable to treat their patient if they don’t have antimalarial medication on their outreaches. Thanks to the free antimalarial program Blessings International offers in April and May, teams can extend their budget much farther to include more life-saving medicines.
“We are so grateful that we are now able to help people suffering with malaria,” Lauren said of the program that allowed them to take the medication that helped Moussa.
Will you help us to provide free antimalarials again this year so that as many patients as possible receive the high-quality medication needed to eliminate malaria? This year, our goal is to raise $4,000 dollars for antimalarials. This would be enough to help between 718 and 11,267people, depending on the region/medication.**
When you give, you allow teams like Project C.U.R.E. to take more antimalarials so they can immediately treat all their suffering patients like Moussa.
When you give, Blessings International uses 100% of your donation for malaria medications.
Please help us reach our $4,000 goal and give to the Malaria Fund here.
*Name changed for privacy
**Extensive regions of Africa, Asia, and South America are chloroquine resistant and, as such, malaria treatments require non-chloroquineantimalarials, for which we offer artemether and lumefantrine (CoArtem).Central America and the Caribbean are not chloroquine resistant, and there, malaria can be effectively treated with the cheaper antimalarial chloroquine.
