A child dies every 30 seconds from malaria—so every second counts.

The fastest way for us to have impact is to blanket Africa with mosquito nets, effective medicine and targeted spraying to stop people dying from malaria. Our role as a catalyst is to maximize opportunities to save lives through communications, resources and investments. Each area of our work leverages the others to form a virtuous cycle for impact.

Malaria has been brought under control and even eliminated in many parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Yet in Africa, with very efficient mosquito vectors, increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems, malaria infections have actually increased over the last three decades. Infections worldwide now number around 350 to 500 million cases a year, with over a million deaths, mostly among the young in Africa.

Experts agree that to control malaria, and ultimately to ensure that families can live malaria-free lives, a comprehensive approach is necessary. Such an approach involves providing insecticide-treated mosquito nets, spraying the inside walls of houses with insecticides, providing access to diagnosis and antimalarial drugs, and providing a packet of interventions through strengthened antenatal care services for pregnant women. Underpinning these four is education – empowering families and communities with the knowledge and resources to combat this disease. Additionally, while we work to control malaria through available tools, we need to continue to support the development of a vaccine.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs) work by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur. The African malaria mosquitoes generally bite late at night or early morning, between 10pm and 4am. Most mosquito nets can accommodate more than one person – a mother and an infant or a few siblings – for up to three to five years. A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its repellency, can even protect other people in the room outside the net. When enough people (about 70 percent) sleep under LLINs, entire communities, even houses without an LLIN, can be made safer.

Project AMI uses the contributions from the public to fund proven, established bed net distribution programs throughout Africa. Depending on where these programs operate, mosquito nets may be given away for free, like in rural areas, or through a voucher system in some urban areas.

Your gift of $10 provides a family a bed net – including the purchase, distribution and education as well as monitoring and evaluation. Mosquito nets are only one tool in the comprehensive solution to control malaria, and a portion of each $10 gift supports Project AMI’s overall work to control this deadly disease. Although $10 for a bed net may not sound like much, affording it is an impossibility for most people at risk of contracting malaria. That’s where Project AMI comes in.