At just five years old, David Kenneth almost lost his life to malaria. Now a media student at Moi University and a member of the Malaria Youth Army in Kenya, David combines his creative skill and passion for social change, to advocate for malaria awareness through film.

“At the age of five I almost lost my life to malaria, but thanks to the doctors and my parents being able to take me to the hospital I survived. That really gave me the energy to try and educate the community and try to come up with ways to pass the message at the grassroot level,” says David. “This inspires me every day to say I can champion for this, for people to not have to die from malaria.”

Every minute a child loses their life to malaria. Growing up in Homa-bay county, an endemic region in Kenya, David knows all too well malaria can destroy lives, with many children unable to receive the life-saving treatment in time to recover as he did from this preventable and treatable disease.

Malaria is stopping children from going to school, preventing families from earning a living and perpetuating the cycle of poverty. David is now on a mission to help bring malaria to an end for a healthier and stronger Kenya.

 “It is important to end malaria, we are thinking about the future generations, we are thinking about the pregnant mothers, we are thinking about the community, because malaria is really affecting all people in our society. When we end it, we save lives, we save the generation, we create an environment where people can be sustainable and more productive.”

David raises awareness of malaria by combining collective action with creativity: staging plays on malaria at his university campus and in the local community. This year, in partnership with the Kenya Malaria Youth Army, he has produced and directed a film called ‘Agnes’ to encourage people to protect themselves and their families from malaria.

Now he has also joined the Zero Malaria Starts With Me - Draw The Line Against Malaria campaign to inspire more young people to come together and call on their leaders to take stronger action and create a malaria-free world.

“Raising awareness is important because we need to get the information out and people need to know about the importance of protecting themselves against malaria… This is what the Draw The Line campaign is all about: That we can end this altogether and the change starts with us.”

Young people play a critical role in the malaria fight and are the generation that will bring an end to this disease: “They are the people we can engage at the grassroot level to distribute mosquito nets… they can come up with opportunities and creative ideas in which we can solve the problem around malaria.” says David.

Join David and be part of the generation to end malaria. Zero malaria starts with all of us.