On April 21 and 22 in Washington, DC, we’re hosting an Action Summit to End Malaria, our very first event that brings people from across the country together to advocate for an end to this horrific disease.

Malaria was eradicated in the United States 60 years ago. But tragically, malaria is still a leading cause of death for children around the world. With enough focused attention, we could be the generation that actually does away with a disease that has killed generations of people – many of them children under five.

So join us this April in Washington, DC. We will train advocates from across the country to use their voice to draw awareness and drive change around a cause. We’ll hear from a friend in Zambia who knows the threat of malaria first-hand, from a leader in the Administration and from a child advocate and pastor from Dallas, TX with a passion for tackling poverty and injustice.

In addition, the event will include training for face-to-face meetings with elected leaders, a Night of Nets event (a model of an artistic, experiential, interactive evening gathering anyone can host in their church/community) and an afternoon of outside-the-box creative activism opportunities near the nation’s capital.

Let’s join forces to descend on Capitol Hill and let our legislators know that we won’t remain silent while more than 2,000 children die every day from this preventable disease.
The means to end malaria is cheap and available, but we need your voice to make it a reality. Learn more and register here.

-Kelli Day, World Vision’s Advocacy Manager

We at ONE and Malaria No More are extremely proud to introduce the very first class of Malaria Griots. As we shared in earlier posts, the Malaria Griots Project (beta edition) is an interactive program designed to train passionate volunteers into powerful spokespersons in the fight against malaria.

We put out a call for entries—and we were completely wowed by the applications we received. We have an inaugural class of 33—and they’re an unbelievable group. We also have a few auditors taking part to help us evaluate the course. We deliberately chose a smaller group of Griots this time around as this is our beta launch and these folks are the pioneers that will lead the way for lots more people to follow.

Here are a few fun stats on the class:

18: Total number of states represented
10: Under the age of 30
8: Teachers/Professors/Students
6: Over the age of 50
5: People who have contracted malaria
2: Financial analysts
2: Kenyans
1: Voice actor
1: Number of applicants who ran a marathon for malaria

Class officially kicks-off this Sunday, and over the next four months, Malaria Griots will take part in live discussions with leading malaria experts, witness stories of Africans fighting to overcome the disease, work with engaging multimedia content, and ultimately become a leading advocate in the fight against malaria. We’ll keep you posted on the Malaria Griots Project (beta edition) over the coming months, so make sure to check back for updates.

You can check out the full class by clicking “more” below:

Amanda Duley	Hamilton, MT
Anthony Wojkowiak	Gloucestor City, NJ
Becky Corbett	Charlton, MA
Beth Bozarth	Las Vegas,NV
Beth Fernandez	Glen Rock, NJ
Cienjana Little	Baltimore,MD
Dianne Johnson	Renton, WA
Don Thomas	Pasadena, CA
Chi Obichuku (Edna)	Missouri City, TX
Ehis Enato	Benin City, Nigeria
Ellen Feig	Yonkers, NY
Emily Hutta	Los Angeles, CA
Jennifer Williams	Columbus, OH
Kelli Day	Issaquah, WA
Kristen Kenney	Miami, FL
Kristen Swanson	Quakertown , PA
Kristine Silvestri	Elon, NC
Marquita Klaver	Lake City, IA
Matt Fisher	Greensburg, PA
Michael Hidalgo	Denver, CO
Mike Jostes	Chicago, IL
Mike Reilly	Lakewood, CA
Nancy Fullman	Seattle, WA
Ralph Perry	Pasadena, CA
Reena Dhake	Minneapolis, MN
Shelia Muthemba	Cliffside Park, NJ
Sojourner Walker	Brooklyn, NY
Steven Swann	Stuart, FL
Teddy Warria	Levelland, TX
Tim Brauhn	San Jose, CA
Trent Wilkes	Birmingham, AL
Tzviatko Chiderov	Glenview, IL
Vimal George	Austin, TX

]]> http://www.one.org/blog/2010/02/23/meet-the-first-class-of-malaria-griots/feed/ 4 http://www.one.org/blog/2010/02/17/join-the-call-connect-to-fight-malaria/ http://www.one.org/blog/2010/02/17/join-the-call-connect-to-fight-malaria/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:00:19 +0000 Adam Phillips http://www.one.org/blog/?p=13447

It likely killed King Tut. At least eight US Presidents have battled it. And every 40 seconds, a child in sub-Saharan Africa dies from it. But no one should die from a single mosquito bite. It’s time to put an end to malaria.

So what can you do to get involved? On Tuesday, February 23 at 4 pm (EST), join a call with young activists from around the globe to hear the latest on the fight against malaria. On the call will be Ray Chambers, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria and a special celebrity guest. They’ll share their personal and professional experiences and talk about ways that we can all get involved to put an end to this deadly disease.

To join in, dial 1-800-244-5901. Then enter the code 306483. If you’d like to submit a question beforehand, please send an email here. And make sure to call in early—space is limited!

A special thanks to our partners on this call—Malaria No More and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation Faiths Act Fellows.

For the full list, click here.

Over the last year, GlaxoSmithKline has been combing through a library of over 2 million molecules in search of any that could potentially inhibit the malaria parasite P.falciparum. It took 5 scientists a year to narrow it down to 13,500 such compounds that Witty and others believe could lead to new malaria medicine. GSK intends to make this data freely available to the public in what they’re calling “the first time that a pharmaceutical company has made public the structures of so many of its compounds.”

The potential of such a move on GSK’s part is fascinating. During his announcement at the Council on Foreign Relations, Witty elaborated:

Let me conclude on a different but related issue and talk about the importance of vaccines in the developing countries. GSK is one of the world’s largest suppliers of vaccines. Eighty per cent of all the vaccine we produce goes to developing countries.

Forty percent of all the vaccine we produce is supplied to GAVI. And over the past year, we became the first company to have WHO prequalified vaccines for pneumococcal disease, rotavirus and H1N1 pandemic flu. Pneumococcal disease is a great example of partnership. GSK is likely to be the first company to supply the $1.5 billion Advanced Market Commitment. The AMC is the largest financing mechanism ever designed for a single vaccine and will dramatically increase sustainable access to pneumococcal vaccines with prices at a fraction of the cost paid by industrialized nations.

We are also – importantly – on the cusp of completing the world’s first malaria vaccine, which is now in late-stage trials in seven African countries. Of course we don’t actually have a registered vaccine yet, and we are in no way taking anything for granted.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be thinking now about how we ensure this vaccine – should it make it – gets to all those that could benefit from it.

You can read more about GSK’s work to find a malaria vaccine here. We’ll be following the progress of this project in coming weeks and months. Stay tuned.

At a New York City reception last week, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman and key members of the Roll Back Malaria team joined together to applaud a new UN General Assembly resolution on the killer disease.

Roll Back Malaria is a worldwide public-private partnership created in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Development Programme, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Adopted by consensus last Monday, December 7, the UN resolution urges the international community—together with UN agencies, the public and private sectors, and foundations—to support implementation of Roll Back Malaria’s Global Malaria Action Plan. It calls on donors to step up funding for anti-malaria efforts and for affected countries to strengthen their national policies.

“In adopting this resolution, Member States, including donors and endemic countries, have reaffirmed their commitment to combat malaria,” said Hervé Verhoosel, the External Relations Manager for Roll Back Malaria in New York. “Malaria kills about 900,000 people a year, but most of those deaths could be avoided with the right mix of prevention and treatment.”

At the event, Verhoosel also introduced United Against Malaria, a campaign to engage and mobilize football fans around the world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in South Africa, provides an opportunity to build support for the 2010 target of universal access to mosquito nets and malaria treatment in Africa—a crucial first step toward the Millennium Development Goal of reducing malaria deaths to near zero by 2015.

“United Against Malaria aims to reach out to children in a language they will understand: sport. If a football player says to sleep under a bed net, the chances are greater that a child will do so,” said Verhoosel.

“Time and again we hear that basic health is essential to economic prosperity,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro. “Yet countless poor people continue to suffer and die from diseases that can be prevented or treated. Malaria is a case in point. Together, we can help save lives in every endemic country and community. We have momentum, let’s keep going forward.”

-Amy Bennett, Assignment Editor, UNICEF

Today, the WHO released its 2009 World Malaria Report, providing the most recent information on the status of the malaria epidemic and highlighting progress toward global malaria targets.

Funding to combat malaria has jumped from $0.3 billion in 2003 to $1.7 billion in 2007. This surge in resources has contributed to impressive progress on the ground: 140 million long-lasting insecticidal nets were delivered to high-burden African countries from 2006 to 2008, use of effective malaria medicine is on the rise compared to 2006, and 31 percent of African households were estimated to own at least one insecticide-treated net in 2008 compared to 17 percent in 2006.

Significant reduction in child malaria deaths could help some African countries, like Sao Tome and Principe, Zanzibar and Zambia, to reach the 2015 MDG goal of a two-thirds reduction in child mortality.

However, this progress is not enough. Africa’s 31 percent insecticide-treated net coverage is still well below the World Health Assembly (WHA) target of 80 percent household coverage by 2010, and only 15 percent of children with a fever in malaria-endemic country received malaria medicines, compared to the WHO’s target of 80 percent. The report also notes that $5 billion will be required annually until 2015 to scale-up and sustain global malaria control and elimination, and funding needs to give greater attention to larger endemic countries rather than smaller countries with lower disease burdens.

Malaria still claims the lives of 863,000 people every year (Africa accounts for 89 percent of these deaths), but this number is down from 881,000 in 2006. The drop is primarily attributed to fewer deaths in Africa among children under 5.

To learn more, read the full report here.

I was privileged to give the opening message, where I talked about how living out the MDGS was the modern day equivalent of caring for our global neighbors. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson also spoke on Saturday, noting that “working for justice and peace meant making your voice heard.” He said that being a part of ONE was a great way for students to work with their friends from other faith communities.

It was a weekend of many exciting firsts, too: youth groups from Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas all kicked-off the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. Their aim? To mobilize 8 million Lutherans in the fight against malaria. At the end of the weekend, the students all then went down the mountain, energized to organize their communities at home.

As covered before on the ONE Blog, United Against Malaria is an effort that aims to kick the world into high gear to beat malaria by leveraging soccer and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Like any good squad, United Against Malaria is fielding a versatile group of players, including soccer stars, government officials, celebrities, corporations and NGOs, including ONE.

Many people representing this diverse partnership were at today’s launch, but perhaps the biggest star was the smallest person in the room. Charles Ssali, a 12-year-old soccer player from Uganda, is the “global emissary” for United Against Malaria. Charles wears number five for his local youth team in Uganda and has played in tournaments as far away as Sweden and Denmark. Charles is also a malaria survivor and has seen the disease impact his community and friends firsthand. Ever since recovering from malaria at age four, Charles has slept under a bed net and told his friends to do the same. Now he’s taking the message that he tells his friends on the soccer fields of his native Uganda—that you can stop malaria with simple, effective solutions—all over the world with the United Against Malaria team.

In addition to today’s launch in New York City, Charles will be launching the effort in Brussels, Addis Ababa and Cape Town. When I talked to him after the event and told him that’s a lot of travel for a little guy, he flashed his big smile at me and said he’s really enjoying his first trip to New York City, he’s excited to travel to Brussels next, but he is most looking forward to Johannesburg, where he’ll see the World Cup.

Beyond Charles, other big names from the soccer world spoke this morning, including Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and Fox Soccer Channel’s lead announcer Max Bretos. Both discussed how the sport, probably the most popular in the world, and its biggest moment, the World Cup, have the potential to tap into a huge audience. It’s an audience—sports fans, youth soccer players, soccer moms and dads—who may not yet fully know the malaria story, but who have the potential to be passionate, engaged advocates once they see malaria can be beat.

From the NGO world, ONE’s own U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix and Malaria No More’s Chairman Peter Chernin discussed how United Against Malaria can mobilize this new audience into effective political advocacy. The ultimate aim is to catalyze the world to reach the international target of reducing malaria deaths to near zero by 2015. It’s a goal that is within reach. Sheila and Peter pointed out the tremendous gains that have been achieved in just the last few years thanks to African leadership supported by effective U.S. and international efforts like the President’s Malaria Initiative and the Global Fund. Malaria rates have been slashed in countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia. But if we want to finish the deal and finally end deaths from malaria, these programs will need continued support. Sheila and Peter said United Against Malaria can play a pivotal role by making the connection clear for the public about how contacting your member of Congress to support effective programs will result in lives saved.

Finally, two more critical leaders, Ray Chambers, the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Malaria, and Bishop Thomas Bickerton of the United Methodist Church talked about how all this progress is being forged on the ground level in Africa with proven tools like bed nets, malaria treatment and better public awareness. Both spoke eloquently on the power of individuals such as Charles to make a difference in this fight, including both advocates like ONE members in the United States and community leaders in Africa raising awareness of effective prevention measures.

And now with United Against Malaria officially kicked off in the United States, there is only one thing missing from the team: you. The good news is that there are no tryouts (especially for me and my rusty soccer skills). All you need is a belief that in the next five years, deaths from malaria must end, and a voice to recruit your friends and press your elected officials. Be sure to follow the rest of Charles’s journey and join the United Against Malaria team at www.unitedagainstmalaria.com.