Why Should I Care?
The number one question we’ve been asked the past few years goes something like this:
“Why are you doing this, with all the problems we have right here in America, why should I care about malaria and people on the other side of the world? Why don’t you guys do something that’s good for this country?”
Fundamentally, our answer lies in the ideals and principles expressed by Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”
“Because of just one, plain, simple rule: Love thy neighbor. And in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust. You know that rule, Mr. Paine, and I loved you for it, just as my father did. And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others.”
We feel that great trust in our hearts and feel we are in a position to realize the potential of a sustained grass-roots movement. We will take the lead and bring the fight to the people where it is needed.
To further help us answer the question, we steadfastly believe that:
- Good health matters to all of us. Disease, suffering, and death do not observe national borders.
- The number of transient cases of malaria diagnosed in the United States is on the rise. At the rate new cases are diagnosed, malaria is on the verge of once again becoming the threat in our country that it posed in the 1930’s and 1940’s. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no3/gubler.htm
- Malaria hampers children’s schooling and social development through absenteeism caused by neurological and physical damage associated with severe episodes of the disease.
- It is in our economic interest to care about global health because decreased productivity in one part of the world affects economies elsewhere.
- The risks of contracting malaria in endemic areas of the world deters economic investment and curtails economic growth and productivity.
- US efforts to improve global health serve as a powerful diplomatic tool.
