Africans Risk Their Lives to Stay Clean

Kampala, Uganda (GlossyNews) — Nothing But Nets, a campaign website driven by the passion of it’s members who donate money to buy mosquito nets for African children, has reported in a finding that in most instances donated nets are cut into 4 by 6 and 10 by 10 pieces to be used respectively by children and ignorant adults as bath sponges.

The founders, who lobby hard for the children of Africa to have some protection from the deadly Malaria disease which claims about a million young lives a year, were devastated by the report. Those same founders have dedicated their lives’ work — only for those efforts to be subjected to the contempt of scummy bathwater.

“You know, if we wanted cleaner African children we would be doing a ‘One Bathtub Per Child’ campaign,” said a visibly irritated Jamie, communications director of the worthy cause.

George Abayomi, a volunteer for the network named Uganda as the country worst affected in the East African region, but quickly moved to explain that countries like Bulungu and Bayengele are “just as terrible”.

“Not that I have anything against the Ugandans, but let’s call a spade a spade here. To be honest, they are the worst violators thus far,” he added.

A campaign led by Twitter-Celeb Ashton Kutcher, which plans to provide 600 million nets by December 2010, was re-considering its strategy.

“Maybe we should aim for a billion fly swatters,” suggested a top aide.

A visit by the Glossy News – Africa team to verify facts on the ground, found that there was widespread misuse, not only of the donated [Mosquito] nets, but also the insecticide which accompanied them. The insecticide was being used for seed dressing — a chemical application applied before planting to protect seeds from disease and insects.

On further inquiry, the local Plant and Animal Husbandry Officer denied the allegations. When Glossy News produced evidence of the misuse, he admitted these were isolated cases and went on to say that the Nothing But Nets program itself was partly to blame.

“They didn’t leave any money for training or even ten o’clock tea, so you can’t put all the blame on us completely,” said the official, Mr Mark Nambeese, who requested anonymity.

After a long day our team finally took to the waters of Lake Victoria for a quick dip to counter the mid-afternoon heat when one of the crew had his leg caught in something under the waters.

“For Chrissake if they could only stop using the mosquito nets for fishing.”