In total, this campaign plans to distribute 1.7 million of the protective nets over one week, with another 1.7 million to follow during a similar effort in August - the most ambitious attempt to deliver nets anywhere in the world to date. Doing so has required a Herculean effort of planning and coordination. The nets, purchased through a major grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, arrived in Kenya in 200 massive shipping containers. From there, thousands
of volunteers working with the Kenya Red Cross
and other organizations visited villages and communities throughout the country to determine the number of nets and vaccines to send to each distribution center. The volunteers also spread the word about the availability and importance of the health services, broadcasting
local radio programs and holding community
meetings.
As the campaign gets underway, it is clear that these efforts have been successful. Twenty kilometers down the road, a second distribution site, this time a single table in the shade of a massive tree, had planned to distribute 900 nets over the course of the week. Midway through the second day, only 150 nets remain and families continue to stream slowly across the surrounding savannah to join the queues. A quick text message from a volunteer summons a truck bearing additional bales of nets from the reserve stock and the distribution continues late into the afternoon.
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