People don't get as excited about ending malaria as they do about fighting AIDS or stopping child slavery—and yet malaria kills 2,000 children every day, most of them under the age of 5. Malaria is a silent catastrophe, a disaster that is not constantly broadcast on TV, even though it kills so many. In the United States, we eradicated malaria in 1951—but more than 250 million people in the poorest parts of the world are infected every year.

Judging from her height and stance, she looks no more than 10, yet experience tells me she’s at least 13. She sits across from me in the car as she guides us to her house down the dirt road. She motions to the right with her hand, but says left, I look at her puzzled, remind her quickly of the English words and she looks embarrassed and says left again with the motion and the word. We pull up to a small cement structure no bigger than my bedroom at home. Behind it stands a crude makeshift metal structure even smaller than the cinder block room in front. “Here,” she says and opens the door to let herself out.