If anyone had watched The Colbert Report recently, then they may have seen an interview with sports announcer Rick Reilly, talking about...well, not sports.  Instead he talked about a charity he started with the support of many (including Bill Gates and The Jonas Brothers) called NothingButNets. I don't like to rely on statistics or averages, saying "so and so many children are infected with Malaria every whatever amount of time" but while medecines, treatments, and distribution are difficult for diseases like Malaria, preventions is so easy and so simple. And that's exactly what NothingButNets.net recognizes- people need to sleep under nets, we have nets, nets are cheap, let's send them some nets. 

Beginning in a column that Rick Reilly wrote for Sports Illustrated, he challenged readers to donate just ten dollars for bed nets to protect children in Africa from mosquitos and malaria. The response from readers was explosive and the grassroots community and campaign was started. From a few published paragraphs and a couple of months, Nothing But Nets had a million dollars and thousands of inspired community members. Over two million electric sky blue nets now cover children in seven African countries. How romantic it is to think that these sheer bright water-colored netted fabrics protect children while they sleep and dream- encircling them from the open darkness in which such terminal things like malaria lurks. And the campaigns that raised these millions of dollars? High School fundraisers, Church bake sales, and lemonade stands. 

I can't quite decide which is more inspiring and heart warming/wrenching- saving a child and their families with a simple textile cloth or the thousands of people and their communities who have answered the call. It's just a net- In the same way that a pencil is just a pencil or word is just a word.

If you'd like to help, donate, or learn more, please visit NothingButNets.net.

Stephen Colbert talking with Rick Reilly about NothingButNets.net and testing out one of the nets, although this one is white, all the other nets are blue to not be confused with African burial tradtions. To watch the full video click here.