Kingston teen travels to Uganda on a mission to prevent the spread of malaria
Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Hollie Pratt-CampbellEMC News - Sixteen-year-old Regiopolis-Notre Dame student, Sara Lefebvre, is getting an early start on a life of philanthropy by travelling to Uganda in support of Buy-A-Net. The locally-based charity funds mosquito nets for those living in impoverished areas of Africa in order to control the spread of malaria - the leading killer of children on the continent.
Sara has never been to Africa before, and became interested in making the trip after hearing about the experiences her mother, Buy-A-Net executive director Debra Lefebvre, had on previous missions to Uganda.
Sara and Debra join three other local women, and about 15 Canadians in total, on the two-week long trip, which began Feb. 9.
"Over the years my mom has gone more and more, and I just wanted to experience it," says Sara. "I'm so excited - it should be very fun."
She admits that "I was nervous a bit at the beginning when I first decided to go, but now I just can't wait to go and help people and just experience the culture and everything that's so amazing about it."
Sara explains that the plan is to travel around to a number of different villages, distributing nets and helping to promote education on malaria prevention techniques:
"We'll be teaching them what the signs and symptoms of malaria are, and about the clinics that are available to them that Buy-A-Net has formed partnerships with. And we'll also just be making friends and getting to know people in Africa, and just helping them out."
Sara notes that raising awareness of malaria both in Africa and here at home is crucial.
"We've reduced the percentage of deaths from malaria over the past decade, but there's still a lot of help that's needed," she says.
"For $7 you can net a family of four people and then for less than $10 you can actually treat a child with malaria and net them. (The nets) protect them at night from mosquitoes, which reduces their chance of getting malaria."
Sara has also been involved with additional Buy-A-Net fundraisers held regularly at Regi. For the past couple of years, the students have sold beaded bracelets and necklaces made by Ugandan women, and set up donation cans in every home room.
"We've raised over $2,000, which is really impressive," she says. "That can net up to four villages."
Sara is looking forward to seeing what kind of impact these efforts have had on the Africans.
"I can't wait to experience how they live and how I'm helping them," she says. "Even just being in the presence of the people who are sick and just helping them out and hopefully making them happier (will be a great feeling)."
Sara remarks that it is important to her to begin this sort of work at an early age.
"I just want to try to make a difference and hopefully I'll keep volunteering the rest of my life and helping people," she says.
Debra is understandably very proud of her daughter's desire to help out.
"Sara is our eldest daughter, and I've always known she is a kind and caring spirit," she says. "However, she wasn't prepared to face the hardships she has seen in photos (and) videos and heard me talk about until now."
Debra believes that the trip will ultimately make her daughter a better person.
"I hope Sara will become more engaged in global issues and share what she has learned with others, to help others," she says.
This will be Debra's seventh trip to Africa. She describes the experiences as being at once frustrating, joyous, emotional and powerful:
"Frustrating because I wish we could do more...Joyous because we are doing incredible work to educate, empower and protect families, especially women and children. Emotional because it tears my heart out to see the pain and suffering endured by these beautiful people. Powerful because it is reaffirming to know we are achieving our mandate and are on track."
She adds that "it's also powerful because we explore new relationships and discover new opportunities."
To learn more, please visit www.buyanet.ca.
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