One Traveler's Birthday Wish Saved Thousands of Lives in Africa

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Sloane found a creative way to help save lives in Africa (Photo: Taylor Davidson)

“I bet Mandy Moore doesn’t do this.”

It was a thinly veiled attempt at a joke made to no one in particular. I had been waiting outside in the midday sun in the industrial port of Accra, Ghana, for four hours and my patience was wearing thin. One hour, no problem. The second and third hours were mostly fine, too. Then I started to get wildly impatient.

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Sloane raised funds for, and helped distribute, 3,000 mosquito nets in Ghana (Photo: Taylor Davidson)

We — I, my boyfriend, a “Queen Mother” (a local community leader) and the driver — were waiting for one man to return from who-knew-where to sign a form releasing 3,000 mosquito nets into our custody. We were going to distribute them to help the fight against malaria, a cause Mandy Moore herself championed during her own trip to Africa with the aid organization Nothing But Nets. We’d hoped our work would further the effort in Ghana. But first, we had to wait on that form!

Related: Travel Guide: Africa

The biggest adjustment I’ve had in my work in Africa has had nothing to do with food, water, or sanitation. My biggest ongoing struggle has been refining the lost art of patience.

One year prior, I was celebrating a successful and spectacular birthday fundraiser where I had raised (along with a friend) over $20,000 to go toward malaria education and mosquito nets in Ghana. The fundraiser — Cause It’s My Birthday — was a way to celebrate our birthday and give back at the same time.

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Sloane Davidson and fellow fundraiser Doug Campbell at their Cause It’s My Birthday event in Miami (Photo: Picasa)

The idea had come to me earlier that year during a three-month stay in the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow working in microfinance. So many family members, friends, and friends of friends had expressed interest or mild jealousy that I had left behind my corporate job for a chance to travel and volunteer. Walking through a rice paddy one day, I had an idea: What if I had a birthday fundraiser where 100 percent of all donations went to a cause? But as part of the experience, I would go to that country and help with part of the end result. I would pay my own way and create my own voluntourism.

It’s not that I was skeptical of typical voluntourism programs; I just felt like I knew what I wanted to do, and I didn’t need to pay extra money to a program to participate in global development.

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Mosquito nets have saved lives throughout Africa (Photo: Thierry Roge/Reuters)

Why malaria? Why Ghana? I had no previous connection to malaria, but I’d read a lot about all of the issues in international development — especially around health-related issues. I was, and remain, passionate about malaria because it is potentially deadly but also preventable. Plus, it’s a disease that’s virtually nonexistent in the U.S., which makes it hard for people to wrap their minds around it. A net costs $5. I thought if I could get friends to buy me coffee or a drink, they could buy a net. Ghana was chosen because of the distribution network our partners at Netting Nations had there.

Related: 8 Tips on How to Quit Your Job and Travel the World

It took me a year after that joint-birthday fundraiser to put everything together for the trip. The logistics alone took months. Netting Nations and the net manufacturer, Vestergaard, were gracious enough to bring me into the decision-making process. I didn’t want to just show up at an orphanage and start handing out malaria nets. I wanted to know how they got from point A to point B. I wanted to know why certain areas were targeted and where the most impact could be made.

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Sloane helps hand out nets in Ghana (Photo: Taylor Davidson)

Over the course of five days in Ghana, I was part of handing out each net. We went to an elementary school, a maternal health clinic, an orphanage, and a town hall meeting. I kneeled down and handed out nets to hundreds of women and children. Each said “Thank you,” and I could see them holding the net close as they walked away and waited for the ceremony that followed each distribution. In return I said, “You’re welcome,” but I could have easily said “Thank you” right back.

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(Photo: Taylor Davidson)

They say, “Good things come to those who wait.” Thinking back on that trip — the first in what’s now an annual journey to a developing country to volunteer — I think about those happy moments in local communities. But I always go back to that moment when I was going to lose my mind with impatience and how in the end, all the waiting was worth it. Everything I’ve got is worth it if it means the possibility of saving a life.

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For Sloane, “voluntourism” has become an annual tradition (Photo: Sloane Davidson/thecausemopolitan.com)

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