It's time to Change the Story, will you?

It’s time to Change the Story

Change the Story highlights the impact climate change and other rising threats are having on malaria and efforts to end the disease. Children are most affected by malaria with 78% of all malaria deaths in Sub Saharan Africa among children under five in 2022.

Children bear the brunt of the impact that changing weather patterns are having on the disease. Yet children’s voices too often go unheard. This campaign places children’s stories from some of the countries most affected by malaria and climate change at its heart.

Climate Change is impacting malaria

Changing weather, health emergencies and humanitarian crises are creating the perfect storm for diseases like malaria. The impacts of climate change are being felt now- whether it's disruption to life-saving malaria programmes like mosquito net distribution or floodwater creating the perfect breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

As climate change accelerates, changing temperatures, shifting rainy seasons, more frequent extreme weather events and moving populations are making malaria harder to predict and control, hitting the most vulnerable communities hardest, threatening years of progress against the disease.

Increasing threats to the fight are making it harder to reach zero malaria in our lifetime.

Be a part of the campaign

Join us and call on world leaders to save millions of lives. Hear the story, Share the story, Change the story.

Right now, a child dies from malaria every minute. This campaign is asking leaders to listen to the voices of children affected by malaria and the impacts of climate change and to make decisions now that will change the story for millions of children around the world.

Change the Story film starring David Beckham & Ellyanne Wanjiku-Chlystun

Launching the campaign is the new Change The Story film. Directed by Grammy award-winning director Meji Alabi, the film features the newest Zero Malaria ambassador, young climate and health champion Ellyanne Wanjiku-Chlystun, and long-time Zero Malaria ambassador and child rights advocate David Beckham. The film tells the story of how changing weather is making malaria harder to predict and control and the impact this is having on children around the world.

Set in the iconic Earth Sciences library in the Natural History Museum in London, and harnessing Ridley Scott Films’ epic cinematic style, the campaign film sees Ellyanne, telling the story of the children most affected by malaria to longstanding malaria ambassador David Beckham. Go behind the scenes, meet the crew and hear how together they call for leaders to listen to children’s voices and change the story for millions of children around the world.

Discover all the real stories behind this powerful campaign.

The newest (and youngest!) #ZeroMalaria ambassador, Ellyanne Wanjiku Chylstun, takes us behind the scenes of the Change the Story film with David Beckham

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Tabinda

Pakistan

Tabinda Hussain is a 12 years old 6th-grade student. Little did Tabinda know that the tranquillity of her village would soon be disrupted by floods that would leave an indelible mark on the lives of its residents.

"During the floods, a lot of water came. Our houses fell down. Our livestock died. All the people from our village left. Because of the floods, there was a lot of dirty water and due to that, mosquitoes came and then everyone got ill. When I got ill, I had a headache and my eyes used to hurt and they were watery. I also used to vomit".

With their Basic Health Unit submerged, accessing medical care seemed impossible. However, a glimmer of hope emerged in the form of Indus Hospital, which had set up medical camps to address the health crisis.

"Then we found out that Indus Hospital has arranged medical camps. So we went there. There was a doctor there. I was tested and found positive for malaria. They gave me medicines, and that helped me recover. People from Indus Hospital also gave us awareness about how to protect ourselves from Malaria".

In the wake of tragedy, Tabinda and her community learned to rebuild not just their homes but also their defences against the invisible threats that lurked in the aftermath of the floods.

Adam Abdi

Kenya

Marsabait County in Northern Kenya, is one of the country’s largest counties. Observed changes in rainfall patterns have reportedly led to more mosquito breeding sites in new places. This region had suffered from extreme drought for 2 years. When the rainfall returned it resulted in malaria outbreaks.

Adam Abdi shares, "Sometimes I get malaria, I take paracetamol and it goes away. But this time I was throwing up, I had a fever and joint pains, it had been almost ten years since I'd had it as bad as this."

Find out more here

Naomi

Nigeria

Naomi is 12 years old from Nigeria and has recently recovered from malaria.

“Hi, I am Naomi, I am from Nigeria, and I am 12 years old. I would like to share my experience with malaria. Malaria is a disease that affects people all over the world, especially those in Africa. The increasing level of heat and heavy rainfall have created a good environment for Mosquitoes to multiply and cause more malaria. Two weeks ago, I had malaria, it was a very bad time for me. The symptoms I had were fever, body pain, restlessness, poor appetite, and weakness. I could not go to school and my mother also could not go to work because she could not take care of me. It would be nice to see a world with zero malaria, so children can have their futures secured.”

Celina Tembe

Mozambique

“In the past, we knew that during the winter there would be no rain,” says Celina. “But nowadays it has become… normal.”

Most of Celina’s neighborhood in Boane District, Mozambique, was under water. The area had already been impacted by flooding, but the situation intensified with the arrival of Cyclone Freddy, the longest lasting tropical cyclone in recorded history.

After sheltering at a school for 10 days, Celina and her children returned home, where they found all of their belongings covered in mud and ruined by water. The family’s crops had been destroyed.

People then started to get seriously ill, including Celina’s two young daughters.

“We didn’t have mosquito nets. We were just fleeing from water in our houses,” she said. “I didn’t want to believe the truth. But when I arrived at the hospital, that is when I saw that it was malaria.”

For Celina, hearing the news that both of her daughters had malaria was terrifying. Just six months before the cyclone hit, her 35-year-old husband Maxaieie came home late from work, sick with a fever.

“That is when I realized that I’m alone now. I’m the father and the mother of my kids” she says.

After both of Celina’s daughters were tested for malaria and rapidly put on treatment, they both made full recoveries.

Find more here

©The Global Fund/Tommy Trenchard/Rooftop

Suzy

Honduras

Suzy is Miskito, an Indigenous community from Central America.

Suzy she has seen thousands of patients, either testing or treating them for malaria, since she became a community health volunteer two decades ago.

“Every week there are 25 people, almost 30. I love my people. They come to my house, and I look after them at night, in the morning, at whatever time,” she says. “I look after everyone, regardless of where they come from.”

“I take blood samples do rapid diagnostic tests and I diagnose. I then give them tablets straight away,” she says.

In 2020 COVID-19 hit, and later that same year Tropical Storm Eta ripped through the country followed by Hurricane Iota only two weeks later. The deadly storms closed health units, including facilities providing malaria services. Surveillance and tracing of malaria cases had to be scaled back, and less people were visiting clinics for testing and treatment due to fear of contracting COVID-19.

In 2020, rather than recording a decrease in cases as Honduras had done nearly every year for the last two decades, the number of malaria cases recorded increased.

Find more here

©The Global Fund/Tomas Ayuso/Panos

Ellyanne Wanjiku Chlystun

Kenya

“Every single minute a child dies from malaria. It is a terrible disease that impacts the future of young people like me, by disrupting our lives, education and opportunities.

Changing weather around the world is making malaria even harder to control.

As children we have a clear message; we need governments around the world to take action and invest now to end malaria within our lifetime.”

Odinaka Kingsley Obeta

Nigeria

Odinaka Kingsley Obeta is the West Africa Lead for ALMA's Youth Advisory Council.

"Growing up in Tudun Wada community in Jos, Nigeria was fun, except for the moments when the river around my school gets flooded and we have to wait hours before we can make it across. Today, the impact of climate change has not only stopped children from going to school but has also affected their access to healthcare amidst increased malaria prevelence in the community.

As we speak, these children - who are the leaders of tomorrow - are already been threatened by malaria as a result of increasing climate crises, the impact of the climate crises on health is severe and if we don't take action today, we'll have no tomorrow to wake up to!"

Mujahid Ali

Pakistan

Mujahid is a fisherman from the Manchar lake District in Pakistan whose one-year-old son Taimur got sick with malaria in 2022 after the monsoon floods. He was successfully treated thanks to health services made available through mobile clinics (camps) that were used throughout the region.

“When the flood came, it caused us a lot of trouble. It wasn’t a small flood. It was a big one. There was a lot of water. All the villages were under water. My house was destroyed during the floods. Our cow and all our livestock died. Seven to Eight days after the floods my child had a fever that would not subside. He refused to eat anything and was vomiting. There was a [health] camp here. We went there and got my child tested and he told us he had malaria. They gave us medicine. Thanks to Allah he was cured.

So many people in the village fell sick. Some were suffering from malaria. We were using this floodwater to drink as well. There was a lot of difficulty regarding earning. We were trying to get through that time. For a month, there was so much worry. There was no means to earn” says Mujahid.

©The Global Fund/Saiyna Bashir/Panos

King, The Ghetto Kids

Uganda

“Every single one of us children in the Ghetto Kids lives with malaria. We all know what it feels like to get malaria and how scary it is. And now climate change is making malaria even harder to fight.

In Uganda, the weather is changing, it is becoming more and more unpredictable and extreme. It is making malaria come at times when we don't expect it, catching us by surprise and making us sick.

It’s time to stop and to listen to children who want to change their stories to make better futures for themselves and children all over the world”.

Fatima

Pakistan

Thirteen-year-old Fatima is a 7th grade student from Sohbatpur. Little did she know that the course of her life was about to be altered by the relentless downpour that seemed to have no end.

"Unlike last year, this year the floods came with heavy rains. It was raining a lot, and then the floods came. There was water everywhere. On top of that, there was the heavy rain. To save our lives, we got out of there and went out”.

With no clear direction, Fatima and her family sought refuge on the main road, a temporary sanctuary from the rising waters. Relief came when they were provided some tents, offering a semblance of shelter amid the chaos.

"Where we were staying, there was dirty water. Mosquitoes came, and they increased, infecting people. I got ill." Fatima’s body weakened. She was plagued by chills, vomiting, and a pounding headache "I did not feel like eating or drinking anything,"

A medical camp became a beacon of assistance for the beleaguered community. "When we went to the camp, they tested all of us and told us that all of us have malaria. They gave us medicines, we took them and recovered. Some people came and told us some precautionary measures: Sleep under the cover of mosquito nets, wear loose clothes, and put lotion on at both day and night time".

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