Dakota Ridge exchange student looks to raise malaria awareness at Saturday’s track meet
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ach year, there are between 300-500 million clinical cases of malaria. Over a million of those cases result in death, according to the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.
Among the 1,500-plus students that wander the halls at Dakota Ridge High School, walks a malaria survivor.
Emmaniel Mwimbong was struck with the disease when he was a kid. “Many, many years ago,” as he put it.
He was able to get into a hospital and, through a drug regimen, successfully combated the disease. Even though this happened when he was much younger, it’s a feeling that he never forgot.
What can start off feeling like nothing more than the flu can take a sudden turn. Mwimbong fouht off the turn, and today, is looking to complete his high school work at Dakota Ridge.
And although he is no longer infected, his battle against malaria wages on. Saturday at the Dakota Ridge Invitational, he is working to spread malaria awareness and do his part to contain the spreading of the disease.
In a letter that he wrote to Dakota Ridge athletic director Matt Heckel, he wanted to use to track meet to help raise funds that can provide mosquito nets for high-risk malaria areas. The theory is easy, mosquito nets can limit mosquito bites that can lead to malaria.
When trying to figure out the best way and avenue to help raise this awareness, the faculty at the school helped him direct the project in the direction of something that he enjoys. They advised him to raise awareness through sports.
And that’s where the Dakota Ridge Invite comes in.
At the event, he is hoping that spectators can provide donations that will go toward providing the nets to those in need in them, specifically in Africa.
“At night, the nets will prevent the mosquitoes from biting,” Mwimbong said. “They are very dense and there are pesticides on them so the mosquitoes can’t get you at night.”
He understands that not everyone will be as lucky he was.
“High temperatrues, fevers alongside the contraction of other disease due to the vulnerability of the immune system are but a few of what one experiences at the early stages, which escalates if not treated in a period of nine hours,” he wrote to Heckel. “As one of the few escaped victims of this ailment, I do not wish the same terrible moments on other people.”
By surviving his battle with malaria, Mwimbong eventually got an opportunity to come to the United States as an exchange student and he has cherished every minute of it.
“It’s been great,” he said. “I love the people here. It is well above my expectations.”
The opportunity is an experience he would no doubt like to see others have. And if his work at this weekends track meet can eventually save the life of a kid who will one day come to the United States and enjoy the same experience he had, his work will have been a success.
