Malaria Bites - Bite Back!

We have been studying insects/bugs in our homeschool this month.  We started with our butterflies.  We've looked up close at centipedes, spiders, beetles, ladybugs, fireflies, bees, ants, dragonflies, oh my!  One of the bugs we most dislike are blackflies here in New England.  Every year as soon as the weather is getting nice - after our LONG winter, when flowers are blooming, and we are dreaming of days outside - the blackflies come to spoil the fun!  Blackflies are like gnats that bite big.  Blood trickles down from the bite soon followed by intense itching and swelling.  They love to bite around your head - by your eyes, ears, neck - places that are hard to cover with bug repellent.  The first year I lived here my eye became swollen shut from a bite.  I don't seem to react as bad anymore.  Or maybe I just don't go outside during blackfly season.  This year we hardly had a blackfly season.  We found out this was because of Hurricane Irene that came through last summer and flooded all the rivers.  The eggs were washed away.  I am guessing that is why we didn't see any mayflies this year as well.  One positive of blackfly bites is that they don't carry any disease.

One insect we are learning about is the mosquito.  And mosquitoes DO carry disease - deadly disease.  So we decided for our Scattered Gifts last month (June) we would bite back and give to help end malaria and help save lives.  When we were adopting our daughter Lila from Liberia we were told she got malaria in the orphanage while we were waiting for her to come home to us.  Thankfully, she got medicine quickly and was a "tough little girl."  We know other babies that died from malaria in her orphanage.

We are giving to Compassion's Bite Back project to donate nets to help save lives.

Here are a couple of malaria facts:

350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide each year.

Malaria causes 20 percent of ALL childhood deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa—nearly 1 million people.

Malaria kills 2,000 children each day, almmost every 30 seconds.

Courtesy of Compassion International: http://www.biteback.net/get-informed/#ixzz203Xpzuva

This is part of our Scattered Gifts mission of our family. As we learn about different organizations, maybe God will lead us to give to some on a regular basis, go on a mission trip, or who knows what God will have us do!

Would you like to join us each month? Do you have organizations we can learn more about? I will be posting at the beginning of each month what our project will be. Some months we will be learning about more than one.

Past months:
January - Sweet Sleep
February - Shoes for Orphan Souls
March - Vision Trust
April/May - Clean Water

I'd love to hear about ways other families are giving and serving!

Linked with: Works for Me Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Family Time Tuesday, Miscellany Monday, The Better Mom, Beauty in His Grip, On Your Heart Tuesdays, Mommy Link-up!, Women Living Well, Hip Homeschool Hop, and Gratituesday.