- TV presenter visited Malawi in Africa for Comic Relief
- She was stunned to learn children are dying from treatable illnesses because they don't have clean drinking water or vaccines
- She was moved to tears when she met one family who lost their two year old daughter after she became ill with diarrhoea
By Alex Jones
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TV presenter Alex Jones, who is currently fronting Let's Dance for Comic Relief, was recently invited to visit Malawi in Africa to see how money raised by the charity is helping make a difference to the lives of families there.
During her stay, the 35 year old was shocked to learn that millions of children around the world are dying from diarrhoea, an illness that can be treated quickly here in the UK.
As she recalls in her own words below, she was moved to tears when she met one mother who had lost her two year old daughter after she became sick with diarrhoea from drinking dirty water...
Tragic: Alex at the graveside of two year old Miracle who died because her diarrhoea could not be treated
Emotional: The presenter was shocked that so many mothers like Angelina, pictured, are losing their children to treatable illnesses
It’s early morning and I’m driving through lush green mountains to reach a rural village called Muyayano, enveloped by fields of tobacco and maize.
Although beautiful, the stunning scenery masks the real hardship that people here are facing. It’s the rainy season and while the crops are thriving, the 400 families in this village are struggling to find enough food to eat while they wait for the next harvest.
I’m visiting during the hunger months, which bite between January to March when two million of the country’s 16 million population regularly go without food.
The wet weather also means that they have to deal with a sharp rise in cases of malaria and diarrhoea.
Preventable: Alex hopes people will donate to charity so less families will suffer in the future
Comfort: Alex said she struggled to imagine what Angelina must have been through
In this village alone, I’m told that 84 out of 89 households have experienced childhood deaths or serious illnesses, from preventable diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. That’s a truly shocking statistic.
I meet Angelina, 23 and her husband Kamlon, 30, who live here with their gorgeous eight month old son Joshua and 10 year old daughter, Fanny.
As if conditions aren’t hard enough, Angelina tells me that the borehole that supplies their clean drinking water regularly stops working leaving the whole village thirsty. It means they’re all forced to use the filthy water from the nearby river to drink, cook and wash their clothes.
Not surprisingly, it makes them all sick with diarrhoea, which leaves their babies and children dangerously dehydrated, and explains why there are so many deaths here.
Like other mums, Angelina has no choice but to use the murky river water. She shows me a bucket full and I know if I drank it, I’d be rushed to hospital but they have no option.
Maternal: Alex hopes to become a mother herself one day
Health risk: But the people in Malawi often have no choice but to drink the dirty water
As she shows me the river, I ask whether her family has suffered much illness. That’s when she tells me that her two year old daughter Miracle died after having diarrhoea from drinking the water.
'It's so awful, I can't stop myself from crying. I hope to be a mum one day and the thought of losing a child is just too terrible'
I’m completely gob-smacked. I had no idea that she had lost a child due to drinking this water, it’s so awful, I can’t stop myself from crying. I hope to be a mum one day and the thought of losing a child is just too terrible. I put my arm around Angelina and give her a big hug as she describes what happened on that February day in 2009.
Tearfully, she tells me that Miracle became poorly with diarrhoea in the afternoon and they took her to a clinic the next day. But it was while she was being transferred to hospital to receive treatment that the terribly weak toddler lost the will to live. It’s utterly heart-breaking to hear and I’m at a loss to know what to say.
I look up and see children swimming and playing in the river. It’s such a worrying sight. We take clean drinking water for granted back home. We just go to the kitchen and turn on the tap and there it is.
My younger sister Jen has a 14 mon th old baby called Dash who I absolutely adore. For me the thought of him having to drink this brown disease ridden water and not surviving something like diarrhoea is unthinkable.
Hope: Money raised by Comic Relief helps provide clean drinking water for the villagers and vaccines to protect the children from illness
Back home we can treat diarrhoea easily. But it’s one of the leading killers of children worldwide, claiming the lives of around 1.5 million children every year.
But despite this grim statistic, there is hope for the future. Thanks to money raised through Red Nose Day, Comic Relief is funding GAVI to purchase more vaccines in Malawi, giving thousands of children a chance of a healthy life.
In the UK we’re protected from birth from preventable diseases. Imagine if the children in Africa had the same opportunity. Miracle might still be with us.
Eye-opening: Alex with Angelina and her family whose experiences made her realiise how much we take for granted in the UK
My day at Muyayano ends with Angelina and her husband taking me to Miracle’s graveside. It’s a peaceful spot tucked away among the fields of crops and trees.
A simple headstone records her short life ‘born 11 September 2007 - died 8 February 2009’. It’s such an incredibly emotional moment. I just can’t believe how unfair it is that a mother with an eight month old son has to visit her two year old daughter’s grave.
The rotavirus vaccine came too late for little Miracle and her brother Joshua, but with your help and just a £4 donation to Red Nose Day, we can help to protect thousands of children from easily preventable illnesses like diarrhoea.
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