Martin:
A few weeks ago I posted this photograph from northern Namibia of a group of women and children fishing on the Okavango River. At the time it seemed a charming scene - they all seemed very happy and contented in their work. But I'm learning more about how Africa works now. Look more closely.
That's no ordinary fishing net. It's made up of sewn together mosquito nets. Since travelling through Botswana and now Zambia I've learnt a lot more about this. Mosquito nets make very good fishing nets. The fine mesh means that no fish escapes - not even the smallest fry. Sew a bunch of nets together and you can trawl a whole river, stream or lake in no time. And they catch everything. And that's the problem - the fish are caught before they can reach maturity and spawn. Whole eco-systems are being threatened this way. What makes it worse is that these nets are being given out free in government and charity-led anti-malarial drives. They are not being used for what they are intended for. So in some areas the incidence of malaria, especially among children, is not falling as fast as it should do. And if you want a real horror story there are tales from all over the region of childhood deaths from overdosing on measles vaccines. Several African countries have offered free mosquito nets to mothers who bring their children in to be vaccinated against measles. The problem is that some of those mothers return a second or more times with the same child to receive extra nets for fishing. But repeated doses of the vaccine in a short period of time can be fatal for small children.
This Christmas many charities will be offering you the opportunity to donate a mosquito net to help save the life of a child in Africa. I'm not saying don't do it - we all want to fight malaria - but think very carefully of what the consequences of that gift could be.