$10 Mosquito Nets Move Young Donors to Save Lives

Mosquito nets, at $10 a pop, are a low-cost, effective way to prevent malaria—and they've become a cause célèbre for young people across the country, who've raised millions in donation drives, the New York Times reports. “You can say $10 saves a life,” says one young fundraiser. “That makes students feel they can help a lot. And every student has $10.”

Bolstered by an odd assortment of groups from the Methodist and Lutheran Churches to Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation to the NBA, VH1, and even American Idol, the campaign has inspired kids as young as 7. One minister in North Carolina recalls telling a crowd of 6,000 young people, “This represents your lunch today at McDonald’s or your pizza tonight from Domino’s. Or you could save a human life.” In moments, he said, "we had $16,000."
(More malaria stories.)