Jessica Uno, a junior at Stanford University, recently won the “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story” contest, earning her a spot on the frontlines of the malaria fight. This week, she will be reporting from the 2009 MIM (Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African) Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
Jessica will interview malaria experts and journalists; learn about new technologies and approaches to fighting the disease; and travel to a local clinic for an insider’s perspective on the malaria fight. She will report back on her findings and experiences via guest blog posts on our Buzzwords Blog and she’ll be Tweeting regularly from her Malaria No More twitter name, @JunoMNM.
The World Briefing contest is co-sponsored by Malaria No More and Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation and raises awareness about the race to save lives.
Be sure to check Jessica’s blog posts and follow her on Twitter to get the inside scoop on the latest news and trends from the front-lines of the global effort to end malaria deaths.
Check out this blog post from our friends at Malaria No More
Recently, I traveled to Los Angeles for the first match of FC Barcelona’s summer tour, played against Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy. Although the teams were competitors on the field (Barça won 2-1 after an intense match!) they came together to show their commitment to a common cause: the fight against malaria.
On Friday evening, the LA Galaxy and AEG hosted a dinner to welcome FC Barcelona to the States and highlighted soccer’s leadership in ending malaria deaths through the United Against Malaria campaign.
FC Barcelona and Major League Soccer have battled malaria off the field for a long time. Now, with the same “goal” of kicking malaria off the field for good, soccer teams and malaria organizations are teaming up for United Against Malaria, an initiative to shine a spotlight on the malaria crisis in Africa during the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup—the first World Cup on African soil.
At the event, United Against Malaria welcomed Tim Leiweke (President and CEO of AEG), Don Garber (Commissioner of Major League Soccer) and Joan Laporta (President of FC Barcelona) as United Against Malaria Champions. In addition, LA Galaxy superstar Landon Donovan, considered the best soccer player ever produced by the United States, announced that he will be a Captain, or leading spokesman of the United Against Malaria team. Tim and Don surprised everyone by announcing a $25,000 donation to the fight against malaria as a welcome gift to FC Barcelona.
During the match, a United Against Malaria video played for the crowd of 90,000 and FC Barcelona wore special United Against Malaria jerseys onto the field to help spread the word.
The soccer community is rallying to end malaria deaths—will you join the winning team?
Check out this great opportunity from our friends at Malaria No More!
Calling all undergrads! Did you miss your opportunity to join the ONE Campus Challenge trip to Africa with Bryant, Melissa, Stephanie, Steven and Tomas? Well, here’s a second chance to travel to Kenya and report back on progress in the fight against malaria.
Non-profit Malaria No More is teaming up with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (makers of Coartem, one of the best malaria treatments) for the “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story” contest.
U.S. undergraduate students can enter to win a trip to Kenya for the MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference in Nairobi, November 2-6, 2009! Here’s your chance to test out your reporting skills at one of the biggest malaria events of the year. Learn about new technologies, innovative strategies and how the world is mobilizing to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015—and report-back through blogs, Twitter, video diaries and more!
To enter, write a personal statement of 500 words explaining why you want to report on the latest news in Africa’s battle against malaria and how you can bring a fresh perspective. Send it along with a tweet (140 characters) to pitch why YOU are the best man or woman for the job.
Find out all the details, including entry information and eligibility at www.malarianomore.org/worldbriefing. The deadline is Friday, August 21st.
Actor Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to one million followers on the social media platform Twitter at 2:13am EST Friday. To celebrate his triumph over the network giant, Kutcher is sending 10,000 mosquito nets to help Malaria No More fight malaria in Africa. This will help protect 20,000 children from this disease-and raise awareness just in time for World Malaria Day on April 25th!
Kutcher is highlighting World Malaria Day on April 25th by mobilizing his Twitter followers to tweet about the disease and donate mosquito nets to Malaria No More. On Tuesday, Kutcher realized that he had over 850,000 followers on Twitter (making his Twitter feed the third most-followed after Britney Spears and CNN) and the gauntlet was thrown! In only a few short days, he has gotten tens of thousands of people to sign up to help him reach his goal and send mosquito nets to Africa. CNN joined in the fun and tracked the race to a million on air and on the web, with Larry King and Anderson Cooper urging their viewers to put CNN over the top—but in the end, Ashton carried the day!
Ashton Kutcher is leveraging the incredible power of Twitter to catalyze one of the biggest pro-social movements in history. This is an amazing model of how modern technology and social networking can be applied to a social issue, inspire millions of people and help save lives. Follow Ashton and congratulate him for his great work and for helping to save lives from malaria at http://twitter.com/aplusk.
Malaria No More is determined to end malaria deaths and is using every weapon in its arsenal.including new technologies to fight an ancient disease. Twitter has emerged as a robust vehicle for raising mass awareness and rallying the world to say NO MORE to malaria deaths. Follow Malaria No More on Twitter at http://twitter.com/malarianomore.
World Malaria Day is just around the corner on April 25th—just 615 days away from the malaria community’s deadline to achieve universal access to malaria interventions in Africa by December 31, 2010. This year’s timely World Malaria Day theme, “Counting Malaria Out”, keeps the pressure on to reach our goal and save lives from this preventable and treatable disease.
Every second counts. The world needs to intensify its efforts in the months to come, building on the momentum of the accomplishments of recent years: significant reductions in deaths, growing political will in Africa and abroad, and unprecedented public awareness. We’re in a race to end malaria deaths…and we need your help to get there.
Malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds and costs the continent $12 billion every year in lost productivity. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have the tools and the programs in place to end malaria deaths—help us support Africa in its efforts to break the cycle of sickness and poverty.
This World Malaria Day, Malaria No More is urging US leadership for continued support in the winning battle against malaria. Malaria offers an incredible opportunity for return-on-investment—exactly what the world is looking for in this economic climate. Help President Obama keep his campaign promise of joining with the global malaria community to end malaria deaths by 2015.
Join us on World Malaria Day as we focus on “Counting Malaria Out” and be part of the first great humanitarian success story of the 21st century—making malaria no more for once and for all.
Reporting to you live from outside the 2008 MDG Malaria Summit…
At the 2008 MDG Malaria Summit in New York today, global leaders in health, government and business announced over $3 billion in new malaria money to help spur the world toward ending malaria deaths by 2015 – making it the single biggest day for malaria announcements in the history of the fight against the disease.
Speakers including Bono, Gordon Brown, Bill Gates, President Kagame of Rwanda and President Kikwete of Tanzania discussed how far the world has come in recent years to combat malaria and how far we still have to go. Peter Chernin, President and COO of News Corporation and Malaria No More Chairman, helped moderate the event, adding that malaria is not an isolated disease but both a consequence and cause of extreme poverty.
Two of the biggest announcements were from the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, announced $1.1 billion as funding for Phase II of the World Bank Booster Program and Rajat Gupta, Chair of the Global Fund, announced Round 8 funding recommendations for malaria control efforts totaling $1.62 billion.
In celebrating the new commitments, grassroots support and political will that is driving the worldwide effort to end malaria deaths, event host UN Special Envoy for Malaria Ray Chambers urged the community not to become complacent. While today represents a big step forward, the race to end deaths – 3,000 children every day – is far from over.
World leaders have descended upon the United Nations this week for the 63rd annual plenary session of the General Assembly and the malaria community is all abuzz with excitement (pun absolutely intended). A major focus of this week’s events at the UN will be the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, including defeating malaria.
Malaria nearly 1 million people a year – mostly children in Africa – but increased funding and political will in recent years have put the world in a position to radically reduce deaths by 2015. Malaria is a key component to achieving the MDGs, as it affects so many of them (5 of 8). The elimination of malaria would boost school attendance, dramatically improve maternal and infant health, free up an estimated 40% of hospital beds in Africa to care for other sicknesses such as HIV/AIDS, and unlock billions in development potential in Africa. There can be no breakthrough in Africa without first addressing the malaria crisis.
Luckily, the crisis is due to be addressed this week in New York, as world leaders gather on Thursday for the 2008 MDG Malaria Summit for the single biggest day of funding announcements in the history of the fight against malaria. Organizing partners Malaria No More, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department for International Development (UK) and the office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria will be making major announcements toward reaching the target named by the Secretary-General on April 25—that of providing enough mosquito nets and access to medication for every man, woman and child in Africa by December 31, 2010—and the ultimate goal of near-zero malaria deaths by 2015.
It is an ambitious goal but one that can certainly be achieved. The global community will stand together this Thursday to prove that they are committed to it through major initiatives that promise to change the malaria landscape. We’ll act as your fly on the wall at Thursday’s summit and will report back with new commitments from world leaders, corporations and the public sector.
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