[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMMEMORATING AFRICA MALARIA DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 27, 2005

  Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, whether you are from 
Minnesota or Mozambique, Kansas or the Congo--we all want good health 
for our children and ourselves. We all want the opportunity to be free 
from want and the hope that tomorrow will be a beautiful day, maybe 
even better than today.
  Sadly, for millions of families across the African continent, good 
health, opportunity and hope are all needlessly diminished or 
extinguished by malaria.
  Now I'm from Minnesota so I know a lot about cold winters and just as 
much about mosquito filled summers, but in Minnesota our mosquitoes 
annoy us--they don't make us sick and they don't kill our children.
  The human misery and economic destruction caused by malaria in Africa 
is a reality that must change.
  And we have the tools to slow malaria's destruction--bed nets, 
improved sanitation, improved drug treatments, appropriate pesticide 
use and a committed global partnership to provide resources and to help 
strengthen national health systems to fight malaria as well as 
tuberculosis and HIV infection.
  Every year across the African continent more than one million babies, 
toddlers and children under five years old die from malaria. This 
unimaginable number of children dying last year alone is equal to every 
single child under 15 years of age in my state of Minnesota.
  One million African children dying in a single year from a 
preventable disease is beyond comprehension, but in fact it is reality 
and it is a reality that can and must be changed.
  For those of us who are moms and dads, we know small children burning 
with fever don't scream, they whimper almost silently and they stare 
into your eyes looking for help. Their voices are not heard.
  More than a million African moms stare back into their children's 
eyes equally helpless. And tragically they watch them die from a 
disease that can be prevented, treated and defeated, if, if the world 
comes together with the resources, the determination and the urgency to 
defeat malaria.
  Today we need to hear those one million tiny voices. Today we need to 
look back into the eyes of a million mothers with our compassion and 
our commitment.
  The leadership of the United States, along with other donor nations, 
when partnered with the Global Fund, the United Nations, W.H.O., 
UNICEF, along with health ministries and health workers across Africa--
if we stand together--can transform the helplessness faced by millions 
of moms into the promise of surviving, thriving children and healthier 
families.
  I am proud of the commitment Congress, the White House and the 
American people have made and will continue to make to overcome malaria 
and the suffering and poverty it causes. But there is much more work to 
be done. On-going American leadership and strong global partnerships 
are needed for Africa's leaders, health workers and citizens to 
successfully control malaria.
  So, as we commemorate Africa Malaria Day, let me conclude by paying 
tribute to our partners--the partners we must not forget. They are the 
heroes who struggle against malaria everyday. They are the community 
health workers and midwives, the doctors and nurses, the lab 
technicians and pharmacists. They work in village health centers, urban 
hospitals and rural clinics and they are saving lives, often times 
under very, very difficult conditions.
  And together--as partners--their work along with our support, our 
commitment and a collective sense of urgency--we can save lives, keep 
families healthier and keep entire communities free from malaria's 
misery.

                          ____________________