BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
MOSQUITO NETS FIGHT MALARIA IN AFRICA
Against Malaria Foundation & Nothing But Nets
Monte W. Holland & Carolyn C. Holland
Two thousand mosquito nets were distributed to families in a community near Kampapa, Uganda, by the Reverend Renee Waun, who visited there in February, 2009. Waun purchased twelve hundred nets using a collection of $6000. Each net can be placed over a bed to keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes from biting during sleeping hours.
Illustrations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaneryonlineliterarymagazine/4264475659/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaneryonlineliterarymagazine/4265225894/in/photostream/
Waun, the pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ligonier Valley and of Suburban Unitarian Universalist Church in Murrysville, is in partnership with the Against Malaria Foundation (http://www.againstmalaria.com), a charity initiated in August 2004 in the United Kingdom. It is now registered in that country, the United States, Australia and other countries.
They Foundation uses 100% of its donations to purchase long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) for distribution in countries where people, mainly children, are in danger from biting insects when they sleep at night. The nets cost $5.00 each.
Although the Foundation uses each $5.00 donation to purchase the nets, having no overhead for advertising, etc., it has (more…)
Living with OCD
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BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
LIVING WITH OCD
as told to Carolyn C. Holland by Dmitri Beljan
I was initially going to talk to you at a local café. However when you invited me to sit down, the place I was seated was not cleaned up from the previous guest. Although tolerable to sit there, I found myself uncomfortable and distracted by concerns about the dirty table. It took away from giving you my full attention.
Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to worry about germs. For example, how many times have you ordered a baked potato at a particular fast food place and the waitress who handled your money then squished the potatoes with her fingers and handed it to you? I found myself several times reminding food service personnel that you don’t handle food and money both. I don’t think that’s so bad.
However if this behavior is carried to an extreme—e. g., asking her to clean the table twice—it could be considered a symptom of OCD.
Thus began my interview with Dmitri.
October 12-18, 2009, is National OCD Awareness Week. Dmitri is willing to share his story of living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, commonly called OCD. Below he tells of live with OCD.
My genetic makeup predisposed me to OCD. This condition was aggravated by my very religious family and the paranoia of the 1950s Cold War.
When I was a little boy the thoughts that are now called obsessive thoughts were not recognized by me as such, and with the influence of religion, I interpreted it to be that I was possessed by demons.
This scared the hell out of me. I became more concerned about (more…)