By Kayla Walker

University students are raising money to increase awareness about malaria in African countries.

The goal is to raise enough to fund Malaria Awareness Week in Larbanga, a small village in Ghana.

“The program will consist of bringing medical professionals to the village to teach the local people malaria prevention tips, how to tell if a child or adult is sick enough to need to go to the hospital because of malaria and ways to save money to buy a mosquito net or a bed because malaria mosquitoes only fly low to the ground,” senior political science major Saundra Dobbs, said.

Dobbs was in Larbanga last summer building an AIDS education when her and her fiancée contracted the disease.

“We learned a lot about the disease,” she said. “More people die of malaria than of AIDS each year in Africa.”

Ezenwa Onwugbenu, sophomore finance major from Nigeria, has fallen ill with malaria over 20 times.

“I think it is a very worthy cause when one considers how many lives are lost,” Onwugbenu said. “Malaria is very preventable.”