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Malaria Initiative

Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria in Africa.  An estimated three thousand children die each day in Africa from the disease.  Malaria can progress quickly in children with as little as 48 hours between the onset of symptoms and death.  Even more mind-numbing is that malaria is a completely preventable and curable disease for less than the price of a cup of cappuccino.  According to the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), the Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is an extremely effective medication against malaria costing about $1.50 per adult and $0.50 per child. Furthermore, the purchase and delivery of one long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net to prevent malaria costs just $10! Our goal is to equip as many women and children with bed nets and provide treatment to as many infected people as possible.  We seek to stop this disease from claiming any more lives in Africa.

HIV/AIDS Initiative

Although the HIV virus does not discriminate by age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status, sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic.  Three-quarters of the people living with HIV reside in this region though they represent only one-tenth of the global population. According to UNAIDS, 22.5 million people live with HIV, 1.6 million died from AIDS while 1.7 people million were newly infected in 2007.  The impact of HIV/AIDS on women and children has been particularly devastating, as they disproportionately represent 61% of the HIV infected population in the region, while there are 12.3 million orphans due to AIDS-related deaths.  AIDS undermines efforts to fight poverty, as infected adults can no longer farm or earn a steady income to meet basic household needs.  Children affected by HIV/AIDS, due to their own infection or parental illness or death, are less likely to receive an education because they leave school to care for ailing parents and younger siblings. HIV/AIDS drrains the resources and institutions of communities and countries across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Our healthcare initiatives are comprehensive and culturally-tailored to the communities we serve.  We focuses primarily on prevention, HIV testing along with pre and post-test counseling, distribution of long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, training community health agents, providing microloans, and enhancing health and general literacy.

Local Capacity Building

Working in remote, poor, and predominantly rural areas where basic health infrastructures and medical supplies are nonexistent, we recognize that building local capacity is paramount.  Using visual aids and dialogue, our field agents train villagers as mobile community health agents.  The health training comprises midwife skills, malaria education, general hygiene practice, HIV/AIDS education, cholera education, malnutrition prevention, etc.  We partner with local and national corporations, international health institutions, pharmaceutical companies, governmental entities, faith-based communities, private and public corporations, and individuals who share our mission or operate in the healthcare field.  We are always looking for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors and nurses to donate medical supplies and/or time to strengthen our healthcare program. If you are interested, please email us.

Past Projects

In 2006, we raised enough money to deliver 350 bet nets to a village in Tonhon, Cote D’Ivoire.  The delivery of the LLIN bed nets was in combination with training on their use.  Because each net is treated with long-lasting insecticide, the nets last for four years even with repeated washings.  The bed nets protect those under the net as well as those within close proximity to the net.  Pregnant women and children were given first priority as recipients.  Also, in this same village in 2007, medical supplies were delivered and 25 men and women were trained as community health agents on general hygiene and the causes and treatments of the predominant health issues such as diarrhea, dehydration and malaria. In 2007, 250 insecticide-treated bed nets were also delivered to people in Prince’s Town Ghana.  Our staff demonstrated the use of each bed net.  Pregnant women and children were given priority.  This village was selected due to the high amount of malaria infections in this area.  All of these purchases were funded by our annual Malaria Run/Walks which typically take place in the spring/summer.  If you would like to participate and be part of the change, please email us or check out our upcoming events for more information.

Upcoming Projects

ETP has several upcoming projects within the healthcare program area:

1. Build a health center in Tonhon and Danane, Cote D’Ivoire.
2. Purchase and operate a mobile van for HIV testing and consultation around the country.
3. Continue to purchase and deliver bed nets to malaria-infected communities (Net-A-Village Campaign).
4. Begin the HIV Dignity & Hope Campaign which will provide micro loans to HIV positive men and women.
5. Begin the Water-A-Village Campaign which will provide water treatment methods to poor communities.
6. Begin the One Life, One Health Campaign which seeks to train local men and women as mobile health agents.

To bring these issues to light, we also plan to produce a documentary on the impacts of these health issues in the communities they are most prominent during our 4-country tour of Africa in the Summer of 2010.  We will shed light on the connections between poverty and disease and emphasize the importance of education and aid for the people living in this region of the world.