With Just One Bead

One of the best things about NETwork Against Malaria is that so much comes from so little. We started small and grew large. We had a little bit of money, and we acquired enough to literally save lives. We had five people involved. We have thousands. One of the best ways, in my opnion, to illustrate this is to show just how much NETwork can do with a bead. Let’s meet bead number one.

A grandmother watches her eight year old granddaughter play dress-up in the dining room. She sits at the table as the little girl parades into the room in one outfit then another. One time, the girl enters in a beautiful blue dress with a ribbon holding back her hair. She has on shimmering silver sandles and a gaint smile. The grandmother is so awed by the little girl and her adorableness that she goes into her closet and finds an old costume bracelet to match the outfit. The little girl tries on the bracelet and loves it. The grandmother gives it to her to keep.

The little girl keeps the bracelet on her wrist at all times. She constantly pulls it off to show parents, friends, and teachers. One day, while she is walking home, she tugs too hard and the elastic gives way. The beads scatter all over the sidewalk. She and her friends scoop down to collect the beads. Without noticing she forgot one, the little girl runs to her grandmother’s house. At first the little girl is disappointed, but the grandmother pulls out an old box and gives it to the little girl specifically for the beads and she feels much better.

That same afternoon, a little boy is walking home from baseball practice. He notices a pretty blue color in the grass and he puts it in his pocket. His mother finds it two days later while she’s doing the wash. She puts in a jar near the sink. The bead sits there forgotten for a few days until the mother begins spring cleaning. She puts the bead in with other used and broken jewelry to drop off at the church.

A teenage girl checks the box at the church and notices a bag of jewelry and beads. She especially likes one blue bead. She uses it for a bracelet and brings the bracelet to the farmers market in town that weekend to sell for NETwork Against Malaria.

A little girl and her grandmother walk past the NETwork Against Malaria booth. They stop to hear how ten dollars buys one net and saves three lives. They pay attention while the teenage girl says that each bracelet is half a net. Then the little girl notices something, a bead just like the ones on her old bracelet. Except next to the beautiful paper beads from Uganda, the bead doesn’t look like it used to. It looks wonderful. The grandmother helps her try on the bracelet and insists on buying it and one for herself.

The little girl and grandmother walk away wearing their bracelets after saving 3 lives.