The ELCA reached a milestone this fall by raising $15 million through the ELCA Malaria Campaign.
Since the start of the campaign five years ago, ELCA members and others have joined with Lutheran companion churches and partners in African countries to support programs to save people’s lives from malaria, a preventable and treatable disease. The programs provide mosquito nets, insecticides, medication, health care services, education and more. As a result of campaign contributions, malaria programs in 13 African countries are fully funded.
“We began the ELCA Malaria Campaign in the depths of the Great Recession and at a time of considerable turmoil in this church,” said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton. “The goal of raising $15 million might have sounded improbable at the time, but our people responded generously. We are honored to accompany our global companions in the Lutheran churches in Africa in their work to make malaria history.”
Shoni Ngobeni, a regional malaria coordinator with the Lutheran Communion in South Africa, said, “I really thank God Almighty for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Communion in South Africa. They gave me an opportunity to be the feet of Jesus in the southern African region.”
Although the campaign’s financial goal has been met, the ELCA will continue its anti-malaria work after 2015 through ELCA World Hunger.
