A sophomore nursing major has joined forces with a Missouri-based nonprofit organization to rid an African village of malaria.

Laci Butler of Sunnyvale was particularly motivated by a Chapel speech last spring by Brad Gautney, president and medical director of Kansas City-based Global Health Innovations. In the speech, Gautney described how his group was working in various parts of the world to alleviate disease.

Butler e-mailed Gautney after the Chapel offering any help possible – and Gautney was quick to accept.

“I really have a heart for international missions,” Butler said. “I was trying to figure out a way I could help since I can’t pick up and travel across the globe while I’m in school. This is a way, as a college student, for me to make a difference.”

Students at ACU, Lipscomb University and Pepperdine University are involved in Global Health’s “Nothing But Nets” campaign, whose goal is to abolish malaria in the African nation of Malawi by distributing thousands of mosquito nets. Global Health plans to raise $8,000 from ACU students by Oct. 1 to purchase 1000 nets for residents of Tonge Village in Malawi. By mid-November, Gautney plans to distribute the nets to the village.

Butler and others are raising funds through a website, www.crowdrise.com/abilenechristian, and are raising awareness in other creative ways. After Chapel on Wednesday, the group unfurled a mosquito net in Moody Coliseum to see how many people could fit under it at one time.

Initially, Gautney and others were working in Malawi to design an HIV program for mothers and children. He soon discovered more people in the village die from malaria than HIV and AIDS.

“They are just so horribly impacted by malaria, so we’ve been working together to try to prevent that by providing everybody there with a mosquito net, and also ensuring that they have adequate medication to treat malaria,” Gautney said.

Female mosquitoes carry the parasite that causes malaria. Dusk and early dawn are the primary feeding times for the mosquitoes, so sleeping without proper protection puts residents at risk of contracting malaria. A mosquito net, especially one treated with insect repellent, provides people with the necessary amount of protection while they are sleeping.

“The cool thing about a mosquito net is that the protection becomes exponential,” Gautney said. “If you can kill the host and prevent the person from getting infected, you can really wipe out malaria in an entire region.”

Since people in the Tonge Village often sleep two or three in a bed, one mosquito net usually protects two adults or three children.

“The reason I wanted to take off with this is because it was so affordable,” Butler said. “Eight dollars is like a movie ticket or a meal.”