Youth Skit(excerpted from the North Texas Conference INM Puppet Script)
Dr. Mal Aria (wearing green face paint) appears onstage from right. He is carrying a marshmallow zapper and seems to bein a hurry. Dr. Nettie Goodwater is center stage and Dr. Aria addresses her.
Dr. Aria: Have you seen any mosquitoes around here. I am out to zap all the mosquitoes. It is theonly way I know to get rid of Malaria.
Nettie: Is zapping each mosquito the only way? Dr. Aria, I don’t think that is enough. The real way is to get rid of places mosquitoes breed and lay eggs. I go all over Africa looking for water holes that breed mosquitoes, then I help people figure out how to have cleanwater that does not attract mosquitoes.
Dr. Aria: Well, I tried to make a vaccine that would keep people from getting malaria, but look: Ifell in and turned green! That is so not working.
Nettie: Stop a minute. You want to zap all the mosquitoes; I want to clean up the water so theycan’t breed; and your lab is trying to make a vaccine. We may be on to something. It will take allof us working together to stop children’s deaths from malaria.
Dr. Aria: You are right. But what can we do? This is serious. This disease kills a child every 60 seconds!
At this point have voices from offstage ready to make suggestions.
Voice 1: What about nets? I heard that sleeping under nets canstop the mosquitoes from biting.
Voice 2: Keep working on a vaccine. Even if it turns you green it is worth doing.
Voice 3: Tell people what is causing malaria. Then, everyone who hears can help preventmalaria.
Voice 4: Send doctors who know how to treat malaria, and help families know where to get treated.
Voice 5: Sounds like we all need to be Malaria Zappers. Let’s get to work on it right now!
Nettie: Did you hear that Dr. Mal Aria? These folks are ready to be Malaria Zappers. If everychurch in our conference helped, I think we could zap malaria for good.
Dr. Aria: I’m going back to my lab. Maybe the next try for a vaccine will work.
Nettie: I am going back to Africa to work on cleaning up the water.
Voice 1 from off stage: And we are going to get busy doing our part to make malariadisappear.
Malaria Skit: Script
Cast:
2 UMCOR workers (VESTS w/ UMCOR on them), 2 parents & a youth (play clothing, not dressed up), one mosquito (costume provided)
UMCOR worker 1:Nets are one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria and is so easy for you to make a difference in your family to help combat this deadly disease. Without treatment, malaria's flu-like symptoms - fever, chills, vomiting, and headache - can lead to convulsions, organ failure and death.Please have your child under a net to sleep (cover the youth with the net). If a family member becomes ill, please bring them to the new hospitals that UMCOR has built.
Parent 1:I don’t have much money and the nets are much more useful if I use it to go fishing, so I can feed my family. One of my neighbors used the net for a wedding veil. We need to use what we have to survive in this community. I have been bitten by the mosquito and survived. I don’t need a bed net just for protection from a pesky bug.
Mosquito: (jumps out-came down the church aisle buzzing): Hey! I’m not pesky! Why is everyone picking on me? I just need to drink your blood so that I can produce eggs. I only live for a few weeks so what is the big deal? I live in standing water that could be a lake, stream, or a bucket that was not emptied. I’m just a little bug, how can I cause you big people to die?
UMCOR worker 2: You may be a tiny mosquito, but when you bite a human and spread a parasite called Plasmodium. Every 60 seconds an innocent child in Africa dies of malaria. You parents have a chance to make a difference. Please use the bed nets that are insecticide-treated and clean up the area around your towns. Don’t leave thing outside that could collect water and spray your homes with insecticide. Spraying insecticide inside your houses last up to 3-6 months. (spray the mosquito& he falls down)
Parent 2:I wish I would have known of the importance of the nets. I lost my child to malaria. Think of how sick you are with a bad case of the flu then times that by 5. That is how sick you get and my little one didn’t survive. My pregnant sister died also. Now I help UMCOR to teach people how to effectively use bed nets andhow best to protect themselves from malaria. Without TV’s we use radio and cell phones to deliver lifesaving information about malaria. Working to drain standing water where mosquitoes breed is the hardest thing for us to educate our people on.
Youth: Please help me!! (come out from under the net) I’m scared and don’t want to die. Malaria contributes to the death of up to 10,000 pregnant women and 200,000 infants each year in Africa alone. Malaria traps communities in a downward spiral of poverty, disproportionately affecting those who cannot afford treatment or have limited access to health care. Eliminating malaria includes promoting prevention and education activities, strengthening our health-delivery systems, training health-care workers in recognizing and treating malaria and of course, distributing bed nets.
Parent 1: I now understand the importance of the nets & promise to use it correctly from now on. I know I have to get my sick child to the health center for a $5 shot of medicine, even though that is 2 days wages for me, it will save my child’s life.
UMCOR worker 1: The key to winning this fight is empowering people in Africa to achieve asustainable victory over malaria,which we will accomplish together. Improving access-to-care by training community-based health workers, and deliveringlife-saving medicines sohospitals and clinics can care forthose in need. If adequate protection, education, and access to quality health care are available, we can eliminate deaths from malaria.
Youth:Please help today with a donation, so we can work to drain standing water where mosquitoes breed.
Parent 2: Give today to help us save lives. $10 can buy an insecticide-treated net to protect sleeping children. $5 can buy one dose of medication for a sick child.
UMCOR worker 2: I encourage participation in Impact 100 society, you pledge $28 a month(just $1 a day) for 3 years to help 100 lives. Or give $1000 or more to imagine no malaria. You will be hearing more about this program.
Mosquito:Imagine: the spirit of Christ with us as we care for each other in our times of need, for “God is not unjust; (God) will not forget your work and the love you have shown…as you have helped…and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10.
Written in conjunction with the confirmation class from Wrights & Edwards Chapel U.M.C. by Twila Hummel have permeation to copy and use in your church. May 2010