United Methodists fill a lead role in global effort to stem malaria

After speaking at a Florida congregation recently, United Methodist Bishop Thomas Bickerton was ushered into the church’s gymnasium and handed a basketball.

The challenge: For every basket he made, church members paid $10 toward global malaria relief. For every one he missed, he put in $10 of his own.

“I left pretty poor on that one,” said Bishop Bickerton, who leads the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. He also leads efforts by the denomination — the thirdlargest in the United States but also one with large numbers of churches on other continents — to help combat malaria.

In advance of World Malaria Day today, Bishop Bickerton announced the latest installment of the church’s fundraising efforts: $9.6 million to the Global Fund, an international parternship of government and private sector that combats AIDS and tuberculosis as well malaria.

The contribution is the largest by a faith-based organization and is part of a larger six-year Imagine No Malaria campaign, said

Bishop Bickerton, who joined other principals involved with the fund at a Washington news conference for the announcement.

The church has raised $18 million to date toward its $28 million pledge to the Global Fund and is getting close to a goal of raising $75 million overall toward various anti-malaria campaigns.

The Global Fund uses money to pay for insecticide-treated bed nets and other means to prevent malaria.

United Methodists are supplying additional funds for malaria treatment at their network of health care providers in several African countries where the church has a large presence. They also are funding research and education to prevent the mosquitoborne tropical disease.

“The United Methodist Church’s contribution to fighting the scourge of malaria is admirable and outstanding,” Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund, said in a statement. “This money will allow hundreds of thousands of African children to sleep under a bed net, significantly improving their chances of living malaria-free lives,” Dr. Dybul said.

Bishop Bickerton said the Methodists have raised funds through road races, pancake breakfasts and more unusual methods such as people taking pledges to go skydiving or dye their hair exotic colors.

“It’s been wildly received by the masses of United Methodists,” he said. “There are all sorts of creative things that have been done.”

The project was formally launched in 2010 and is scheduled to conclude in 2016.

The campaign, he said, is a way “to back up what we say we believe” and care for the poor.