A very surprising Red Nose Day feature last week. Malaria. 1M dead every year. Only in Africa now. And I never realised but mainly children under 5 years old.
1M dead. But Red Nose Day has raised 500M over 10 years. Early in the show it raised £13M. Then £57M.
DFID has 2 budgets of £1.2B. And 2 offices.
KCC spends £110M in bank charges. Bank charges! Money paid for money in and out. From our council tax. And the Treasury. £110M!
The Red Cross is already speaking with Tesco on how they can support aid delivery.
Malaria nets prevent any deaths. Proven. 1M deaths down to zero.
Maybe with a few cheap droplet drugs too.
1M malaria nets. £5 each? It’s only netting. £5M. Double it. Treble it. Even call it £20M.
Where is the money at DFID going? £20M on nets and some cargo boxes and shipping fees would end malaria within months.
The money is there. Where is it going?
I know. Civil service research. Diversity proposals. Salaries. Powerpoint presentations.
KCC is a £2B organisation. With 40,000 employees.
Should not an one-off malaria charge of £2 per employee per week (I think that makes £5M) be reclaimed from DFID and the Bank Charges. £110M. And nets bought and shipped from Dover? 1M nets with a few spares would be about 3 blue cargo boxes worth. Maybe a blue box or two for malaria drugs.
Too small a load for most ships.
1M deaths. The population of Kent. For £5M. Or £20M whichever you prefer. And 3 blue boxes of netting. A 3 day sailing time to West Africa or South Africa. 3 weeks of internal flights or trucking to anywhere and everywhere in Africa.
Probably just sending the money to a Red Cross office. The local British Ambassador could sign for it too.
£5M for nets. 1M deaths.
Something's wrong somewhere isn't it?