Project Sleep Safe.
Project Sleep Safe.
In Africa, every 2 mins a child under 5 dies from malaria ( UNICEF)
It was when Nikki was travelling in Africa that she saw first hand the effects of malaria, even fighting it herself a few years later. Yet what she also learnt was that a mosquito net was the most effective way to be protected from it. The mosquito that carries malaria is mainly active between 10pm and 4am hence the safety of sleeping under a net.
However, as she travelled and whilst in Uganda, Nikki observed that so many people didn’t have nets and when asked why, it always boiled down to money. Mosquito nets do not cost that much money (on average £2.50) but in Uganda money that was money that most people living in the slums or the rural areas just didn’t have.
It was 2008 when Nikki distributed her first 100 mosquito nets and up to 2021 the ACDT has distributed over 25,000 mosquito nets to children across Uganda. The great thing about a net is that they are huge and with families living and sleeping together, one net can protect 2-3 children. If looked after they can protect you for years.
Before distributing the nets, Nikki always talks with the children and the parents to educate them on the importance of using their nets correctly and looking after them for maximum longevity.
It is so humbling to see the joy on the childrens faces when they receive their nets and the happiness for the parents that their children will now be sleeping safely under a mosquito net.
Nikki has high hopes for the roll out of a malaria vaccine but until then, she will continue to be an advocate of mosquito nets and will continue to do her best to distribute them to children in need.
2008, where it all began.
In 2008 the ACDT distributed it’s very first 100 mosquito nets. Nikki documented in on an old camera and made a film about it. We recently found the film after thinking it had all been lost. (there were tears when it was found!) It’s no Hollywood blockbuster, It was made simply on an old laptop, but what it is, is a reminder of where we started and how now we can stand back as a small charity and say we have distributed over 25,000 mosquito nets to children all over Uganda.
In the film you hear Nikki talk about her hope that this first 100 is just the start and that in time the ACDT can deliver hundreds and thousands of nets. And now we can look back and say that is exactly what we have done.
Sometimes you don’t realise what you have achieved until you look back.
Hear more about the impact of Project Sleep Safe
Hear Nikki and Rose talk about the lives that have been protected as a result of mosquito nets.
