Community Corner

From Three Village to Senegal: Teen Helps Fight Malaria

Emily Holtzman, 16, set up a charity to help stop the spread of malaria.

The ScreenSaver Foundation, an organization that aims to stop the spread of malaria in Senegal, has its roots right here in Three Village.   

Sixteen-year-old Emily Holtzman, a rising junior at Ward Melville High School, recently returned from a trip to the tiny village of Croisement Peulh, in Senegal, where malaria is the number one cause of death. She is the founder of The ScreenSaver Foundation, a non-governmental organization that combats the mosquito-borne illness by installing screens in windows.

"Saving lives from preventable diseases in Africa requires awareness and intervention," Emily said in a statement. "African governments have helped raise awareness of the mosquito problem and bed nets have become more widespread, which is great. But the mosquitos are still getting into the homes through broken or missing windows. Our aim is to solve that."

According to the World Health Organization, a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria in Africa.

Emily and her sister Julia together registered the organization as a New York State charity, and set to work raising money. Emily eventually purchased 100 cut-to-fit mesh screens and adhesive tape with Velcro, and traveled to Croisement Peulh – about 80 miles outside Senegal's capitol, Dakar – to install them.

She started out raising money for bed nets, before moving on to screens. She said her next plan is to raise money for micro loans to entrepreneurs who can then buy, sell and install the screens on their own.

Emily plans to return to the village.

"There is more to be done," she said. "There are huge openings in the huts and cement structures that serve as doors, and there are magnetic products that can help secure them."    

To learn more about The ScreenSaver Foundation, visit www.screensaverfoundation.org and like “The Screensaver Foundation” on Facebook.


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