I felt the pain shoot up my spine, my muscles weaken, my joints lock, and the fever seize my body. Only three more hours to go on a small, cramped “dala dala” with strangers sitting on my lap.  It was hotter than Miami on a summer day yet I was uncontrollably shivering from the fever. This was the real Africa and I was trying to survive.

I reached the town just in time. For the next three nights I slept in a hospital room. No familiar face in sight, but only the strangers who saved my life.

The medication that eased my pain cost me less than ten dollars. Without that medicine, I would have died, just like the 2800 kids malaria kills every day. My experience with malaria changed my life forever. I returned to America determined to give others the same chance I had to fight and survive.

I remember looking down at a bracelet on my wrist. I had purchased it right off the hand of a Maasai warrior in the Serengeti a week before. It was blue and resembled the vast sky of the region but more importantly, it was a symbol of Africa's rich culture.

And so… MALAIKA FOR LIFE - buy a bracelet, save a life - was born. For the women who make the bracelets, they receive a constant source of income and for those who once suffered from malaria, they receive lifesaving medicine so that they can go back to school, to work and to their families.

My goal is simple…to continue to sell our "save a LIFE" bracelets every day until a larger and more powerful organization can step in and find a vaccine or an alternative method that is immediate, effective and sustainable.

Until then…we keep plugging away everyday. We are small and all-volunteer but we have achieved some great results such as supplying 22 dispensaries and three hospitals with the lifesaving medication.

I have learned that it doesn’t take much to change someone’s life. All they need is an Angel, a Malaika in Swahili.