Nets for Nets:
Cabrini Athletes Raise Funds to Fight Malaria
By Kim Pozniak

Radnor, PA — When players of the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Cabrini College played Immaculata University last January, they didn’t just play to win. For every basket they made that night, a malaria net will be donated to West Africa. The event kicked off the first in a series of Nets for Nets games, which raise funds to be donated to Catholic Relief Services‘ efforts to fight malaria.

One of the most preventable diseases in the world, malaria kills more than one million people in Africa each year. Many of them are young children in sub-Saharan Africa where people live on less than a dollar a day, and thus cannot afford to buy mosquito nets.

“As the first college to officially sign an agreement with Catholic Relief Services, Cabrini is proud to support the “Nets for Nets” project to provide life-saving bed-nets to people in the Gambia, West Africa,” said Dr. Marie Angelella George, president of Cabrini College. “Cabrini students have worked with CRS offices in the Gambia conducting workshops on the dangers of AIDS/HIV and malaria, and we are deeply committed to the global mission of CRS.”

CRS works with a consortium of Catholic colleges and universities to raise awareness of global poverty and health issues around the world, and Nets for Nets is a project jointly sponsored by CRS and the schools involved. “Some of our partner colleges approached us with the goal of raising awareness, educating and engaging their students and the wider campus community around the issue of global malaria and its prevention. They also hoped to provide some bed nets to prevent additional victims of malaria,” says Arlene Flaherty, CRS’ justice and peace liaison with Catholic schools in the Northeast.

Brittany Mitchell, a senior at Cabrini and CRS Ambassador, approached CRS about the Nets for Nets project in August. “I knew malaria was a problem but I didn’t know how severe it was,” she recalls. “Then I did some research and found out that every 30 seconds a child dies of the disease. That’s when I decided to push ahead with Nets for Nets. But [the event] wouldn’t have happened without the support of my fellow CRS Ambassadors and CRS.”

Based on the basketball teams’ previous track records, Brittany and other organizers of the event decided to set their fundraising goal at about $560, the sum of $7 per score. In order to raise donations for the project, Brittany approached several businesses in the area who donated items and gift cards that were raffled off during halftime. In the end, they exceeded their fundraising goal through ticket and raffle sales, and raised a total of $700 to cover the cost of 100 bed-nets.

Brittany Mitchell has been a CRS Ambassador since the beginning of the 2008 school year. “As a CRS Ambassador for migration, I like to figure out programs that bring awareness to the problem but I also like to bring awareness to other situations where people need help.”

As part of Cabrini’s partnership with CRS, 11 CRS Ambassadors work on campus to raise awareness of social justice issues like migration or fair trade. They organize events, educate other students, and organize fundraisers to benefit CRS’ development projects around the globe. Cabrini College has always been committed to serving the less fortunate at home and around the globe, and Cabrini faculty and students work to bring awareness to global poverty and social injustice.

Kim Pozniak works as a communications officer for CRS and is based in Baltimore, MD.