ERD testifies on Capitol Hill

From Episcopal News Service

ERD Congressional Testimony highlights role of faith-based institutions in fighting malaria in Africa
By Staff April 26, 2007 [ENS, WASHINGTON, DC]

In a hearing to mark Africa Malaria Day April 25, Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) testified before a key U.S. congressional subcommittee on the role of faith-based organizations in fighting the malaria pandemic in Africa.

"The Church and other faith communities … are the first point of contact for help," Susan Lassen, a consultant who coordinates ERD's NetsForLife program in malaria control, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

"Faith communities have long had the ability to build and mobilize a delivery system that will reach the most vulnerable populations who live 'at the end of the road,'" said ERD President Robert W. Radtke.

Unparalleled infrastructure, capacity

"As the global community develops new and innovative methods to control and prevent malaria, the challenge of distribution becomes absolutely critical," Lassen told committee members. "NetsforLife capitalizes on the infrastructure of the Anglican Church to reach vulnerable populations."

The full testimony can be read [below].

NetsforLife is a one-year-old initiative of ERD, carried out in partnership with the Anglican Churches of Africa, to distribute one million insecticide-treated malaria-prevention bed nets in 16 sub-Saharan African countries by the end of 2008. Thus far, the program has distributed 213,000 nets in Angola, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique. It is funded by private individual donors, Churches, the Starr Foundation, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, and Standard Chartered Bank. To learn more about NetsForLife, visit er-d.org/malaria

Also testifying at the hearing were Admiral Tim Ziemer, coordinator of the United States President's Malaria Initiative; Mark Grabowski, Malaria program manager for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Enid Wamani, secretariat coordinator for the Uganda Malaria and Childhood Illness organization; Dr. Nils Daulaire, president of the Global Health Council; and Adel Chaouch of Marathon Oil and the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa.

Bed nets are large sheets of insecticide-treated meshing designed to be draped over the beds or sleeping areas of people living in regions where malaria is prevalent. The nets shield users from malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which spread the disease during night hours.

Health-care professionals consider net use fundamental to efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, which causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one-million deaths each year in developing countries.

"A mother and her two children can be protected from malaria for five years for a total cost of approximately $12," ERD told the subcommittee, explaining that this cost reflects not only the price of the net but also training in proper use, education in other methods to prevent malaria, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

An emerging consensus

In addition to ERD's focus on mobilizing the infrastructures of African Churches, the Episcopal Church is supporting malaria-control efforts through its advocacy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said Alex Baumgarten, international policy analyst in the Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. Goal 6 of the MDGs is "combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases."

"The advocacy of Episcopalians through the ONE Episcopalian campaign is playing an important role in building a new consensus in the U.S. Congress and Administration that fighting deadly poverty and disease throughout the world should stand at the forefront of our nation's foreign policy," said Baumgarten.

Since the beginning of 2007, Congress has approved more than $1.3 billion in increased funding for anti-poverty and disease initiatives, with the Senate voting to further increase funding over the coming year by an additional $2 billion.

"The understanding among U.S. policymakers of the relationship between poverty and disease and its affect on conflict and global stability is light years ahead of where it was two or three years ago," said Baumgarten.

President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush addressed the importance of malaria-control efforts in comments yesterday in the White House Rose Garden to commemorate Africa Malaria Day. Speaking about the eradication of malaria in the United States in the 1950s, President Bush said, "we've solved this problem before. And the fundamental question is: do we have the will to do the same thing on another continent? That's really the question that faces this country and other nations around the world. My commitment is: you bet we have the will. And we've got a strategy to do so."

"Defeating malaria is going to be a challenge, but it's not going to require a miracle," said the President. "That's what I'm here to tell you. It's going to require a smart and sustained campaign."

The Rose Garden ceremony highlighted the work of the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), a five-year $1.2 billion initiative to spur government partnership with private organizations, including faith-based institutions, in the fight against malaria. Baumgarten said that the Episcopal Church is actively advocating for maximum congressional funding of PMI and related efforts.

Wholeness and wellbeing

In her testimony, Lassen also stressed the unique level of commitment and energy that faith communities draw from their theological background and experiences: "For the faithful of Africa…their core identity is shaped by the sense that God is using them to help draw their communities into the wholeness and wellbeing he intended for them when he created the world and proclaimed it good."

Lassen told subcommittee members of an Angolan woman named Malita who lost a child to malaria but has since been trained by NetsForLife as a community malaria leader. Describing people like Malita as the "hands and feet" of NetsForLife, Lassen concluded her testimony by telling lawmakers that "If she was here today, Malita would say: 'God is good all the time. All the time God is good.'"

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Written Testimony to
House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Subcommitte on Africa and Global Health

By Susan Lassen,
Consultant to Episcopal Relief and Development for NetsforLifeSM
and
Robert W. Radtke,
President, Episcopal Relief and Development

To be delivered by Ms. Lassen on Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Mr. Chairman, Congressman Smith, and distinguished members of the subcommittee:

Thank you for the opportunity to describe the role of the faith based community as partners in the fight against malaria in the developing world.

My name is Susan Lassen. I am a member of the Episcopal Church and consultant for Episcopal Relief and Development’s program in malaria prevention: NetsforLifeSM. I am pleased to be joined by Dr. Robert W. Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief and Development which is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church in the United States. An independent 501(c)(3) organization, ERD saves lives and builds hope in communities around the world. We provide emergency assistance in times of crisis and rebuild after disasters. We enable people to climb out of poverty by offering long-term solutions in the areas of food security and health care, including HIV/AIDS and malaria.

As the global community develops new and innovative methods to control and prevent malaria the challenge of distribution becomes absolutely critical. Known as the ‘silent’ killer many of the one to three million deaths a year from malaria occur in hidden remote house holds out of sight and reach.

NetsforLifeSM is an inexpensive initiative to distribute one million long lasting insecticide treated nets in six-teen countries in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2008. The program specializes in reaching isolated populations, and was officially launched in Zambia exactly one year ago today. Our program is funded by private individual donors, Churches, the Starr Foundation, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, and Standard Chartered Bank. The partnership’s ability to leverage the individual funders corporate expertise, in addition to funds, has been significantly instrumental in our effort to fight malaria.

Two hundred and thirteen thousand long lasting insecticide treated nets have been distributed in Angola, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique. A mother and her two children can be protected from malaria for five years for a total cost of approximately $12.

However, NetsforLifeSM is not only about distributing nets. Within this cost, monitoring evaluation, education, vector management, advocacy for drug access and training around indoor residual spraying, are included. We have been able to build malaria prevention into our current work in integrated community health programs.

This year training and distribution are planned for Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar.

The Church and other faith communities are increasingly important, as they are the first point of contact for help. Over 70% of the African continent population is rural. Mission hospitals and health posts preceded European colonization and as countries became independent the majority of them became nationalized. However, with increasingly constrained Government budgets and scarce resources for health services, many of these hospitals are once again being run by the church and are to-day providing primary health care.

The need to reach remote communities is understood and all faith communities, have long had the ability to build and mobilize a delivery system that will reach the most vulnerable populations who live “at the end of the road.” For over three hundred years, they have provided an unparalleled infrastructure and capacity to reach these populations.

Churches in Africa are attended regularly, and are the natural convening point and focus for much of society. Often local leaders, many of them women, are born, nurtured and raised through the church where care and concern for one’s neighbor is at the core.

A Gallup poll published in September 2006 of people living in nine-teen sub-Saharan countries found that 76% of those polled trusted the Church, and only 38% their national Government. Where poverty limits a government’s ability to care for the health of its citizens, the Church is a dependable and trusted source for solutions to many problems including malaria. The respected leadership of the Church becomes the focus for disseminating information and changing behavior. It’s an influential, impartial and a trusted advocate for health services and a mobilizer of volunteers. This is a resource that cannot be under estimated. We believe that the un-tapped human capacity of the Church, and its infrastructural proximity to vulnerable populations, provides an effective opportunity for strong partnership with religious communities in Africa, to fight malaria.

NetsforLifeSM capitalizes on the infrastructure of the Anglican Church to reach these vulnerable populations. There are more than 40 million Anglicans in sub-Saharan Africa. Participating parishes in the program have up to ten outstations and women and youth networks. With training and commitment these volunteers become powerful forces that penetrate entire communities.

May I give you an example of how we work on the ground and an example of what partnership against malaria really means, from the end of the road?

On February 22, I attended the fifth NetsforLifeSM launch which was in Angola. We were delighted to be joined by Admiral Ziemer, the coordinator of the President’s Malaria Initiative, the Vice Minister of Health Dr Jose van Dunem, United States Ambassador Cynthia Efird; the Anglican Bishop of Angola, Andres Soares, and Dr Steven Phillips, of ExxonMobil, and Mr Mohammad Yasu from Coca-Cola Angola.

The journey to St. Stephen’s church in Kiambiaxi, a suburb of Luanda, took two hours -- a distance of four miles. We were greeted by magnificent singing, celebration, rejoicing, and speeches. Nets were distributed.

The atmosphere was different at St Andrew’s Church, Ondjiva, in Cunene province, which is more than 500 miles from the capital. Last year there was singing, celebration, rejoicing, fewer speeches, no dignitaries. Nets were distributed.

In this Church, nearly invisible to the rest of the world, 118 nets were distributed to pregnant women, mothers with children under five, the elderly and those who were HIV positive. They had traveled on foot from their village compounds in Namakunde– about five miles on footpaths (not roads or bicycle paths) – and had waited all day for us to arrive, many of them with small children.

The distribution of these 118 nets was, as always, preceded by a training session. We sat on benches inside St. Andrew’s Church under a leaking corrugated iron roof. A sleeping mat was on the ground, a net was unpacked, hooks and wooden poles assembled, and the net was hung. Role playing, drama and stories were frequently interrupted for questions. This was a practical class but with constant reinforcement of the importance of using the net and encouraging malaria prevention as a priority. It was dark and I could see peering into the Church from the rain outside faces of people who were listening eagerly. I walked to the doorway, and I was startled to see that a huge crowd had gathered, all of whom wanted to learn about ‘the fever’. Although they would certainly leave with some knowledge, they would have to wait for the next shipment of nets, the demand and need was great.

The 118 nets we distributed will protect probably 230 people from malaria for the next five years, but the cumulative effect will be much greater. I’ll give you one example:

Malita a young mother, returned with her family to Angola from northern Namibia last year as peace and security seemed so hopeful. It was time to start cultivating the family farm. They had heard that vegetables were selling well in the market and the future was bright.

Malita had two small children and was pregnant. She knew that “fever” came but she had no idea what caused it. She was inclined to believe her mother-in-law that it was ‘bad sugar cane.’ When her eldest child – about three years old -- started feeling feverish the week before, she was utterly powerless to save him. She told me with tears how quickly he had died, in her arms, in less than a day.

I met Malita at about 7 o’clock in the evening; she had trekked all day with her mother-in-law and had waited for her net. Not only did she leave with the net, however, but she left with knowledge. She now knows about fever and what to do. She knows about the malaria mosquito, she knows that she and her child must sleep under the net, not just in the rainy season but every night. She knows about puddles, about keeping her compound clean, and about spraying. She knows about treatment with medicine and she knows where to go for help.

And, perhaps most important of all, she has become a community malaria volunteer. More nets are on their way to Ondjiva, and Malita will be ready, she has been trained in malaria prevention by the NetsforLifeSM team so that she can educate, support and teach her own village. She will make sure that mothers are protected, that the elderly and sick sleep every night under a net, and that those who need treatment will know where to go. She will make sure that all the medicine is swallowed.

Malita’s knowledge and experience will stay in Namakunde; it will steadily build the health, wellbeing, agricultural production and economic vitality of this small community, on the border between Angola and Namibia. Refugees like Malita’s family are returning to their old land to cultivate, plant and resettle and malaria is a sickness that they cannot afford.

People like Malita are the hands and feet of NetsforLifeSM across Africa and are demonstrating that with very small investment from countries like our own, the fight against malaria can be won.

Episcopal Relief and Development is thrilled to see the continuing expansion of the President’s Malaria Initiative and urges Congress to continue to fund it robustly. We thank this subcommittee for its leadership on this vital issue, and we thank the State Department, USAID, and multilateral partner, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The Zambia Anglican Council that launched NetsforLifeSM last year is now in discussions with a Global Fund grantee the Christian Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ).

We began this testimony, Mr. Chairman, by describing the need and role of the faith-based community in the fight against malaria. The Church is now, and will continue to be a vital steadfast partner, committed to serving all those in need irregardless of faith. It is pragmatic and efficient and has unique access and capability to RollBackMalaria- that difficult, last mile.

We would also like to add that the faith communities in Africa draw on a unique level of commitment, inspiration, and energy from a faith – born partly out of theology and partly out of circumstance – that God is omnipotent and that His purpose is greater than any one individual or community.

As the Anglican Bishop of Lebombo, Mozambique, Denis Sengulane often says: God has no hands – and he has no feet, eyes, or ears – in the world except our own. For the faithful of Africa, their core identity is shaped by the sense that God is using them to help draw their communities into the wholeness and wellbeing He intended for them when He created the world and proclaimed it good. This involves healing the sick and feeding the hungry, and at a fundamental level, it involves working for the systemic change that will eradicate poverty permanently.

In closing and in answer to your question Mr. Chairman, the faith-based community is willing and eager to follow the leadership of this committee, to be partners in the fight against malaria and to save lives.

Malita offers us just one example of true partnership. If she was here to-day, she would say to this committee:
“God is good all the time
All the time God is good.”

Thank you.