United Against Malaria represents a diverse group of partners – national football teams, African corporations, policymakers, NGOs -– all committed to reaching the malaria community’s No. 1 goal: reducing malaria deaths to near zero by 2015.

During Africa’s premier football championship, Africa Cup of Nations, hosted this year by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, several of the continent’s most popular football stars are doing more than showcasing their moves on the pitch … they are partnering with United Against Malaria to deliver life-saving messages about malaria prevention and treatment, helping protect fans and save lives.

Six players are lending their voices to a new series of PSAs that are airing in countries across Africa throughout the tournament:

Malaria is preventable and treatable, but a child still dies from the disease every 45 seconds. The United Against Malaria PSA series aims to tap into the popularity of these football stars and their sport to educate fans on the simple steps that can help protect them and their families from malaria, including sleeping under treated mosquito nets and seeking medical assistance at the first sign of fever.

“United, we can beat malaria,” the football stars urge viewers in the new PSAs.

Their support, along with the help of key African partners including Marathon Oil and Standard Bank, who are extending messaging further through billboards and educational materials, is helping United Against Malaria reach these fans in a powerful way.

To learn more about the football community’s commitment to the fight against malaria, and to view the new PSAs, please visit our website at www.UnitedAgainstMalaria.org.

Dr Caroline Anstey of the World Bank said: “These are not neglected diseases -– but rather diseases of neglected people.”

The aim is to eliminate Guinea worm, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma and sleeping sickness by 2020, and control schistosomiasis, river blindness, soil-transmitted helminthes, Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis. These diseases cause misery, suffering, disfigurement and death -– and when they don’t kill the seriously affect the lives of many people.

At the event today, $785 million dollars was pledged to support research efforts into the diseases, and to strengthen distribution to make sure the vital drugs get to the people who need them.

Bill Gates said that it was “thrilling to go from an idea a year ago to this milestone event with ambitious goals.”

You can read more in depth information about the 10 diseases, and watch a recording of today’s event at unitingtocombatNTDs.org.

Here’s a great infographic that explains the problem and solution (click to enlarge):

At one of my English Clubs — a place for students to practice their English — last Tuesday, 140 7th and 8th graders crammed into a classroom that shouldn’t be able to hold more than a third of them. They were there to learn a few English words and watch the American put a condom on a wooden penis. I was there to teach them about HIV/AIDS. The class started by discussing what HIV/AIDS is and how it affects the human body. Then, I showed them some statistics about people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. I told them that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of infections, and that 1.2 percent of the population of Burkina Faso is currently living with HIV/AIDS.

Next, we discussed the different ways you can contract the disease. I explained to them that it can be transmitted through blood, from mother to child, and through sexual relations. The human reproductive system and sexual education isn’t taught until the 9th grade here in Burkina. So, I asked them if they knew what sex was. After the initial laughter died down, I taught them what sexual relations are. You may be thinking that these children are too young to be learning about sex, but quite a few of them are probably over 15 years old and are already having sex, not knowing the risks involved. Many of the girls, unfortunately, may not even feel they have a choice in the matter.

My job is to explain to them the importance of protecting themselves and presenting all the options on how to do just that, including abstinence. When I brought out the wooden penis the class erupted into laughter — but by the end of the hour-and-a-half session, every student in that classroom knew why, when and how to use a condom.

SEE ALSO: Back to Africa: Finally a Peace Corps volunteer!

Peace Corps volunteers around the world have English Clubs. They are one of the many ways we are able to get across more important messages about health issues, human rights and more. Toward the end of this month, President Obama will be releasing his annual budget proposal. As ONE members, we need to remind him the importance of the United States’ international aid and development programs. My 7th and 8th grade English Club wanted him to know that they appreciate what the United States does to help them so they took this picture with me. Fifteen million kids are alive today because of US efforts.

Funded by the Global Fund through financial support from Product (RED), Tema Hospital cares for 2,200 people living with HIV. We recently visited their facility again –- their work never ceases to amaze me. The Global Fund make it possible for the hospital to provide ARV treatment and PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child-transmission). Thanks to these interventions, only 4 percent of babies at Tema with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus.

Project HEART was launched in 2004 in partnership with the CDC and PEPFAR to scale up access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. As of September 2011, Project HEART has enrolled more than 1 million people in HIV care programs (including 80,000 children), provided antiretroviral treatment for more than 560,000 patients, and tested and counseled more than 2.5 million pregnant women.

The success of Project HEART is especially remarkable given that the final stage of the project merely marks the beginning of a new one, in which local partners and organizations are responsible for HIV program management in their own countries. In just three years, EGPAF was able to build up the capacity of local governments and civil society organizations and transition the management of HIV prevention, care and treatment programs over to local partners. This was accomplished by following a three-pronged strategy:

As we turn our focus toward ending the AIDS epidemic, it becomes increasingly important to strengthen local health systems and capacitate them to handle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines six building blocks for health systems strengthening to help clarify the essential functions of a health system. Project HEART is a great example of putting these principles into practice and making a commitment to, and investing in, health systems strengthening. The result is something we can all celebrate: the successful transition of a large-scale HIV program to local partners and governments. Job well done!

When I was ten, I was busy doing important things like mastering long division, practicing softball and rocking the plastic glasses/bowl cut combo. While I’m proud of those accomplishments, I have to say I’m even more proud today to honor all the incredible things that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has achieved in its first ten years of existence. To understand the Global Fund’s impact, it’s important to remember just how bad things were before it existed: Fewer than 50,000 Africans had access to AIDS treatment. Malaria was killing nearly 1 million people annually. Treating TB was considered too expensive for most of the developing world.

In late January of 2002, leaders came together in Switzerland to launch the Global Fund. Built to be what Kofi Annan called a “war chest” to respond to these global health emergencies, it had the backing of donors, public health officials, developing country leaders and NGOs. Intentionally, it was designed to be different than other aid models; it was rooted in having local stakeholders (rather than donors) say what they wanted to do to fight AIDS, TB or malaria, and how much money it would take to get the job done.

Though no aid model is perfect, the Global Fund has clearly been doing something right, because it has delivered incredible results over the last decade:

In delivering these services — often in partnership with aid efforts including PEPFAR and with national health systems — the Global Fund has helped change the global health landscape. Though they each still claim far too many lives, all three diseases are all on the decline globally. Now, the mantra has shifted from a “stop the bleeding” approach to a more hopeful, long term approach characterized by phrases like “we can achieve the beginning of the end of AIDS” and “we know how to end malaria deaths by 2015.” And, just as my own personal style has thankfully evolved from those outdated plastic glasses to contact lenses, the Global Fund has gone through its own strategic reforms in the last 12 months to become an even more targeted, efficient mechanism in the years to come.

Funding — as always — remains a challenge. The Global Fund has said it is currently unable to fund new programs until 2014 due to a roughly $2 billion funding gap. Constricting global budgets, coupled with persistent whispers of corruption, are convenient excuses for donors to pull back on their contributions to these diseases. But the Global Fund has made the changes necessary to ensure that money invested in its programs will be monitored transparently, evaluated rigorously and directed toward specific outcomes. As a result, donors should feel confident that maintaining or increasing their contributions will go toward the achievement of bold new goals: saving 10 million lives and preventing 140 to 180 million new infections between 2012 and 2016.

Of all the aid projects I’ve been able to visit, the one individual who stands out most is a playful little girl named Madeline who I met at a Global Fund clinic in Ghana. She was born HIV-positive, but thanks to the Global Fund, her mother was able to access the antiretroviral treatment that will keep her alive and healthy. I get that 10 million lives saved through the Global Fund seems too overwhelming to conceptualize. So instead, I’d suggest we simply think of Madeline, and then think of all the other Madelines out there who, thanks to the Global Fund, will be able to grow up healthy and one day also master long division and practice softball like me. I just hope they all skip the bowl cuts!

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that India just went through an entire year without any new cases of polio, a crippling disease that still haunts the developing world.

To celebrate, we’re asking our ONE members to join us in making some noise for this tremendous achievement. Positive news like this is rare in the world of global health, and we’re not going to let this one slip by.

Please write a message of congratulations to the millions of people — health workers, vaccinators, community and religious leaders, pediatricians and Rotarians — who worked to make India polio-free on End of Polio’s website. Encourage them to keep up the fight and show your support.

Click on the image below to write your message now:

In 2009, India had more cases of polio than anywhere else in the world — and look at them now. It’s amazing what we can do with the right amount of support, resources and encouragement. So, please join End of Polio in acknowledging India’s global health milestone today.

Today, the world marks a milestone in the fight to end polio. India, the place where I was born and contracted the crippling disease as a baby, has gone exactly 12 months without a reported case of polio.

Now as a Rotarian, a Canadian, a polio survivor and a member of our global community, I want to say thank you.

Thank you to the Indian Government for making this goal a reality.

Thank you to Rotary for having the vision of a polio-free world, more than 25 years ago.

Thank you to the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the millions of volunteers, fundraisers, and people who cared enough to fight polio.

And, thank you to ONE members for keeping the pressure up on world leaders to address preventable global diseases, like polio.

I want to remind you that our work is not complete. I implore all of you to not become complacent in our efforts. The children around the world need all of us to commit to this, and donate time and dollars as together we move forward on our journey in our battle to End Polio Now.

We are truly seeing the power of working together to make the dream of a polio-free world a reality. Dreams can only become real if we dare and never give up!

And the dream is becoming real… an India with no polio. Together, we are truly “this close” to ending polio forever.

Andrew Speaker caused an international incident in 2007 when he boarded an international flight while infected with XDR-TB, a form of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs. It was terrifying to imagine what could have happened if the flight had taken off. Was there anything scarier than flying next to a person with extensively resistant TB?

Apparently, there is.

This week, doctors in India identified twelve cases of TB that are totally drug resistant (TDR-TB). Whereas XDR-TB is 60 percent fatal, this new form of TB is 100 percent fatal. Researchers, policymakers, and patients are scrambling to make sense of it all. Although India’s TB program has been successful, it fails to include patients with multi-drug resistant TB. Ninety-nine percent of Indians lack access to proper treatment for drug-resistance, which has fueled the rise in XDR and given root to this new form of totally resistant TB.

This new strain threatens to take us back 60 years ago when TB was incurable. But things have changed in the last 60 years. Now there’s HIV.

It’s terrifying to imagine the impact this new form of totally drug resistant TB could have if it combines with HIV. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of TB-HIV co-infection in the world. In some places like Swaziland, over 80 percent of people diagnosed with TB are also infected with HIV. Drug-resistant TB is particularly dangerous in this population because it preys on people with weakened immune systems.

“If we had a strain [of TB] for which there is no treatment… It would be mean mass devastation” says Carol Nyirenda, Zambian TB-HIV activist and patient advocate. Zambia is currently experiencing stock outs of anti-TB drugs –- shortages that develop of drug-resistance. Emergence of TDR-TB would place even more strain on the already fragile health system. Laboratory capacity is another problem. “We don’t have the capability to do that kind of testing,” Nyirenda explains.

The threat of drug-resistant TB and HIV has been around for the last decade, but little has been done to address the problem. Dr. Jim Kim, co-founder of Partners in Health, warned in PBS’s documentary Rise of the Superbugs, “When drug-resistant TB and HIV collide, as it is right now in places like South Africa…it is going to be a disaster, the likes of which I think will surprise many of us. … There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to get it under control now, with resources that are pitiful compared to what we spend on so many other silly things.”

It’s time global leaders take immediate action to control and prevent the spread of TB. “We need to ensure a constant supply of anti-TB drugs and more education around TB,” explains Nyirenda. This new form of totally drug-resistant TB must be taken very seriously. It won’t be long before the new strain surfaces elsewhere. After all, TDR-TB is only a plane ride away.

ACTION is an international partnership of civil society advocates working to mobilize resources for global health. To learn more about drug resistant TB, visit www.action.org.

Experts have long considered India to be one of the toughest places in the world to fight and eradicate polio. After all, India is neither a small nor homogenous place, and just two years ago, India had 741 cases of polio—the most in the world. How did they achieve this milestone?

• They immunized, and they immunized again: India held two National Immunization Days (NIDs) in 2011, and during each NID, an amazing 2.5 million vaccinators delivered polio vaccines to more than 172 million children. For children who weren’t reached by the NIDs, India organized 7 Sub-National Immunization Days to focus in on more remote and high-risk areas.
• They innovated: Indians didn’t just rely on traditional vaccine education and delivery methods. They met parents and children where they were—at bus stops, in construction sites, on motorbikes. They also fostered pressure and incentives for their health care workers, ensuring accountability and consistency in their delivery program.
• They fought stigma and misconception: Particularly in Muslim sections of India where concerns about vaccines were more common, polio eradication programs engaged religious leaders at all levels to build trust among parents for this safe, effective health intervention.
• They led from within: Though the role of groups including the GPEI partners and the Gates Foundation can’t be overstated, India is a success story because Indians have also stepped up. Since the National Polio Surveillance Project was established in 1997 by the Indian Government and the WHO, the program has grown, become more effective and targeted, and has built a platform that now allows for greater progress on other diseases. Local stakeholders including teachers, religious leaders, and health workers have been on the front lines of the fight. And critically, the Indian government has financed the vast majority of the eradication effort with its own resources—an example for other emerging economies to follow.

And why, as an Africa-focused organization, should we pay so much attention to this achievement? For many in the global health community who often feel like the challenges are endless, this shows that real progress is possible—and not just in the “easy” places. This milestone should rejuvenate global efforts to eradicate polio, including from the last remaining endemic country in Africa (Nigeria) as well as other countries which had once eliminated the disease but have seen a resurgence in recent years (including Angola, Chad, and the DRC). At a time when vaccination rates are on the decline in some regions, each successful immunization campaign—and the press generated around it—also helps to reinforce the safety and value of vaccines for parents around the world. The tactics India used to achieve this goal should also serve as a lesson for other countries and other global health challenges; persistence, innovation, and country ownership are fundamental to effective development programs, and will remain so long after polio is eradicated.

Please join me in congratulating the millions of people who have dedicated time, resources, and political will toward making this a momentous—and happy—Friday the 13^th!