The ‘Finish the Fight Against Malaria’ campaign has initiated a new event to raise funds for malaria work in the Western Pacific Region. March Against Malaria (MAM) is for individual clubs to engage with the local community to raise awareness of the need to eliminate malaria.
Malaria is a global – and personal – disease, as Stephenie Rodriguez can testify.
Stephenie contracted cerebral malaria from mosquito bites on a business trip to Nigeria in 2019. However, she didn’t know this at the time. It was two weeks later when she collapsed at Boston Logan International Airport as she was waiting to return to Australia. She was immediately rushed to Boston Hospital in a coma, where the medical staff were unable to diagnose her ailment. It took a doctor friend of Stephenie’s from the Sunshine Coast, Qld, with malarial experience to diagnose cerebral malaria.
Stephenie survived a two-week coma and near-death experience, before commencing a three-year recovery journey to treat irreversible damage to her feet and hands caused by severe sepsis from malaria. In 2021, she became Australia’s first bilateral osseointegrated female amputee, losing her feet above the ankles.
Stephenie is passionate about supporting Rotarians Against Malaria and has agreed to be the brand ambassador for the Finish the Fight Against Malaria campaign. She knows first-hand the devastation malaria causes, not only on the human body, but on families, communities and societies where malaria remains prevalent.
Stephenie personifies resilience and articulates the importance of self-love and agency while learning to walk again and live ‘bionic’. She is a single mother, a successful entrepreneur, a globally recognised motivational speaker, a past Rotarian and TEDx speaker, humanitarian, and most recently a Para-Olympian in training in the para-fencing discipline.
In 2019, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria approached Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) – Rotarians Against Malaria to partner a campaign to raise US$12 million for much needed work in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste and Vanuatu. Finish the Fight Against Malaria was launched in October 2023 and Past District 9600 Governor Dai Mason was appointed campaign manager. Together with a team of Rotarians across Australia, Dai has been working assiduously to complete the challenge.
The COVID pandemic significantly set back the previous progress that had been made towards malaria elimination. In 2019, a child died from malaria every two minutes, but by 2022 a child was dying nearly every minute. The World Health Organisation’s 2022 report indicated that 640,000 people die of malaria and 214 million are affected by the disease every year. In the Western Pacific Rim cases and deaths are increasing. The enormous impact this has on the welfare and socio-economic wellbeing of people and countries is staggering. The sad fact is that some 90 per cent of deaths are related to pregnant women and children under the age of five.
Yet, Malaria is a disease that is preventable and curable.
Raising the awareness of the plight of malaria sufferers following COVID was paramount in Dai’s mind. Consequently, he and his team organised the Global Malaria Congress 2023 from May 25-26, just before the Rotary International Convention in Melbourne. More than 35 international speakers gave their time to present at the congress, which was underwritten by RAWCS. Speakers included Past Governor-General of Australia Sir Peter Cosgrove, Global Fund Chair Lady Roslyn Morauta, Dr Philip Welkoff from The Gates Foundation, Malaria Initiative President Dr David Walton, D9640 Malaria Vaccine Project representative Professor Michael Good, and many more renowned speakers from around the world.
MAIN PICTURE: Stephenie Rodriguez lost both her feet above the ankles to the malaria in 2021. Today, she is the brand ambassador for the ‘Finish the Fight Against Malaria’ campaign.