Against Malaria: Empowering people to eradicate malaria

Sub-saharan Africa tends to be the focus of activity against malaria. However, there are many other regions of the world at risk and where we also fund the distribution of nets as this new video from Nicaragua shows. This very well produced video (in Spanish) charts the distribution of 3,500 nets to an area made especially vulnerable by the damage wrought in September 2007 by Hurricane Felix.

Here are two of our younger participants, Nellie and Isabel from Hertfordshire in the UK, who competed in their own version of the triathlon and raised more than £1,500.
Here is the event in pictures.

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850 people recently tool part in an event, organised by Speedo in Malaysia. As you can see, in this report, the event had the added bonus of securing some great coverage from the media.

A few moments ago the total of funds we have raised passed the US$3million mark. This means 600,000 nets provided and, the most important statistic of all, 30,000 lives saved. We have also just recently passed another milestone involving 3 - over 300,000 people have now participated in Against Malaria initiatives. This is a fantastic achievement, but there is still a long way to go to make our next target - which is one million people having participated.

This Friday is World Malaria Day. There are going to be many activities taking place around the World to raise awareness about Malaria - check this page for more information. However, if you want do something we would recommend joining the One Million Faces Against Malaria - Project Blackout initiative http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4110666657

If you can get publicity for a swim, that is great, because it helps spread the word about fighting malaria. See this from the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association.  Also take a look at this and this from Alex and Tony Linossi.  If you want help and advice about publicising your event, please let us know.

One of the things we can do is match a specific fundraising initiative to a specific distribution. Here is a good example. Danyi’s Children is an organisation that, since 2003, has been fundraising specifically for the children of Danyi N’Digbe in Togo. They wanted to raise money for 500 long-lasting insecticidal nets for the village and we therefore provided everything they needed to make this happen. We have just received their video of the nets arriving and you can see this and all the other details here.

Madness Against Malaria is into its third round. Last year’s winners, the Beantown ‘Skeeter Beaters are showing strongly as are a team called Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way - which is targeting anyone called Will or who has a will in their name. However, leading in terms of overall money raised at the moment is Molfetta Against Malaria from Italy. Check out the progress here.

Speedo have marked the start of their campaign to support the 2008 World Swim Against Malaria by organising a swim relay with stars from some top UK TV soaps and 30 school kids. Helen Flannigan (aka Rosie Webster from Coronation St), Dominique Jackson (aka Lauren Valentine from Hollyoaks) and Tony Audenshaw (aka Bob Hope from Emmerdale) together with kids St Johns School in Chorlton successfully swam 2008 metres in a pool in Manchester’s MEN Arena. This pool had been specially constructed to host the 9^th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 being held in Manchester from 9 - 13 April.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s UK heads of tax, assurance and advisory services swapped their suits for swimmers as they raced against three of the firm’s PAs across the chilly Serpentine lake in Hyde Park today, with enough time to nip back to the office for a day’s work.

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