$6 Life-Saving Anti-Malaria Bednets

Summary

Provides bednets for African families to prevent malaria and lift them out of poverty. These nets will keep a family malaria-free 20 times longer than other nets, preventing expensive malaria care.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

Malaria costs Africa more than $12 billion annually, with more than 300 million new cases and 1 million deaths per year. Malaria particularly affects the poor, who typically spend 30% to 40% of their income on health expenses. Prevention is vital. Providing a $6 malaria-preventing bednet to a poor family will save their lives and help lift them out of poverty. This project will protect almost 300,000 Africans against malaria and save lives.

How will this project solve this problem?

The project will help provide expensive bednets to the poor. Acumen Fund provides the business assistance to the bednet manufacturer--AtoZ Corporation--to create a sustainable enterprise that serves the poor of Africa.

Potential Long Term Impact

This project will reinforce the importance and potential of market-based approaches to problems of poverty.

Project Message

"I was sleeping without a net and I was covering my body with a bedsheet and the whole night mosquitoes would bite me. Since Saturday night I slept so well and no more mosquito noise or biting."
- Old man living in a mud house, Bednet customer

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).

Resources