iWillAfrica

On The Ground In Mali: A First Person Account

This December, Malaria No More is distributing 165,000 bed nets in Mali as part of a distribution of 2.1 million insecticide treated bed nets through the integrated measles campaign. Malaria No More is proud to join the Measles Initiative and our other  partner organizations in this life saving distribution. By the end of this campaign, all children in Mali under the age of five and their families will have received an insecticide-treated net.

The blog post below was written in Mali by Muslim leader Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur.  Saleemah is a member of the Malaria No More team and editor of the book Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak.

“There is nothing more important in the world today than this campaign”

--Admiral Ziemer, The President’s Malaria Initiative
*****
My prayer on the plane into Bamako, the capital of Mali, is that I am of service to the people of Mali.  That I don’t do anything to devalue the people even though I perceive through the lens of Western experience.  I pray that my thoughts and actions are aligned only with greatest good. 

As we set down on the runway, I am surprised that we are landing in the capital city because only a few clusters of lights can be seen from the sky.  On the ground it’s balmy and warm.  The locals remind us that this is the winter.  The scene is tropical, casual and informal. 

Over the next few days, my experience of the people of Bamako is friendly.  They speak English, French, Arabic, Bambara and many other languages.  There are 13 million people in Mali with about a million residing in Bamako.  The country is landlocked; however, the Niger River cuts the country in half.  The history and culture is rich and diverse and scholars come from the best universities in the world to read manuscripts and study the ancient people of Mali.  I am told that one is well received in Mali if you are given a name. A female physician tells me that my name is Saleemata.  She leads us on a tour of health centers.   

Malaria No More Travels to Mali

Malaria No More is off to Mali for a bed net distribution in conjunction with our partners on the ground.  Below is our official announcement of the trip which includes a contingent of incredible Muslim community leaders, scholars and activists.  Please join us all next week for coverage of the trip!

MALCOLM X DAUGHTER TRAVELS TO ANCESTRAL HOME;
JOINS MUSLIM-AMERICAN LEADERSHIP TO FIGHT MALARIA IN MALI

New York, NY – Thursday, December 6, 2007: In her 2002 book “Growing Up X,” Ilyasah Shabazz describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of martyred civil rights leader Malcolm X. More recently, Ms. Shabazz has delved deeper into her family tree, discovering her roots in the African nation of Mali.

This December 9 - 14, Ms. Shabazz will visit her ancestral home for the first time as part of a Muslim delegation hosted by Malaria No More, an organization working to end malaria-related deaths in Africa.

A 90% Muslim country, Mali is 100% malaria endemic experiencing over 800,000 malaria cases per year. Malaria kills more African children than any other disease—one child every 30 seconds. Yet the disease is easily prevented with tools like long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, which cost only $10 to buy, deliver, install, and educate people on proper use.

“I’m thrilled to work with Malaria No More to alert Americans to the malaria crisis ravaging Africa,” said Ms. Shabazz. “That I have a family connection to Mali only makes the problem that much more personal.”

Ms. Shabazz has committed her life to exploring her family’s legacy and empowering youth. She’ll do both during her trip to Mali, where she’ll meet with local religious leaders, see the African malaria crisis firsthand, and participate in the distribution of 2.1 million insecticide-treated bed nets to children under five as part of an integrated measles-malaria campaign.

For the first time, the Malian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with international partners, is launching a national integrated health campaign to vaccinate more than 2.8 million children against measles, and distribute over two million insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent the spread of malaria. Children will also receive polio vaccinations, de-worming medication, and Vitamin A supplementation to improve their immune systems and help them grow stronger. 

By the end of this campaign, all children under the age of five and their families will have received an insecticide-treated net.

Ms. Shabazz will be joined by a delegation of high-profile Muslim-American scholars, leaders, and activists representing organizations including the Islamic Society of North America, Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Ministry of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, and the Muslim Students' Association National (MSA National).

Fight Malaria On Facebook!

Many thanks to Michael Arrington and TechCrunch for this fantastic post about how you can make a difference in the fight against malaria on Facebook today!

Buy A Virtual Gift And Fight Malaria

Michael Arrington

Causes is one of the most popular Facebook Applications, with over 300,000 active users. The service, which leverages virality to spread the word about worthy causes, aggregates 40,000 causes that benefit 13,000 nonprofits worldwide. In many ways, it’s a pyramid scheme for good.

Now founders Sean Parker and Joe Green are leveraging another phenomenon to increase participation even further: virtual gifts. Facebook has been selling them since February this year. A number of unofficial virtual gift applications created by third parties have also launched on Facebook. Clearly, they are here to stay. Facebook says 24 million of them have been given away through the official application alone (although many of them were free).

But now you can give a gift that says a little more than “I spent a dollar on you.” With Gifts from Causes, you can give a $10 - $200 gift to a friend. Each virtual gift (see image below) benefits a different charity. 100% of the proceeds (minus only credit card fees) go directly to the charity.

$10 gives two blankets to people in a disaster area. Or one insecticide-treaded bed net to a child in Africa to fight Malaria. Or a soccer ball to a poor child. etc. So the next time you want to send your boyfriend a rose, think about spending $15 instead and sending him a teddy bear. In the real world, a sick child will receive a real teddy bear, thanks to your generosity.

The President's Malaria Initiative Increases Work In Ethiopia

Malaria No More is a proud partner of the President's Malaria Initiative.  Below is a  recent article  from Africa News about PMI's groundbreaking malaria control work in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia launches 1,2bn malaria initiative

      Andualem Sisay, AfricaNews reporter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, photo: Luiz Maximiano
      Ethiopia became a focus country for the historic 1.2 bln USD, five-year U.S. effort to fight malaria across Africa. United States Ambassador Donald Yamamoto joined Dr. Kebede Worku, State Minister of Health, and retired Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, U.S. Malaria Coordinator, to launch the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), a joint effort to fight the disease on November 30, 2007 at the US embassy.

      PMI will significantly increase resources to Ethiopia, providing the most advanced and effective prevention and treatment interventions available. This year's funding of 20 mln USD will be spent primarily in the Oromiya Region, which suffers most from the country's malaria burden.

      "This is a tremendous opportunity to save lives and reduce disease by building upon successful malaria treatment and control activities already underway in Ethiopia," said Ambassador Yamamoto. "The United States is committed to the Government of Ethiopia and its people to achieve its development goals of reducing poverty and fighting disease."

      The PMI is an interagency initiative led by USAID, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as key partners. The goal of the PMI is to assist national malaria control programs to cut malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in the 15 focus countries in Africa by supporting a comprehensive malaria control effort led by national malaria control programs.

      This goal will be achieved by reaching 85 percent of the most vulnerable groups - children under five years of age and pregnant women - with proven and effective prevention and treatment measures. This includes residual indoor spraying of households with insecticides; the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets to families; intermittent, presumptive treatment of pregnant women with antimalarials; and the roll-out of new, lifesaving, artemesinin-combination therapy to treat patients with malaria.

      Ethiopia, Liberia, Kenya, Zambia, Mali, Madagascar, Benin and Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal are PMI focus countries.

      "Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet it is a major killer throughout Africa," said Rear Admiral R. Timothy Ziemer (U.S. Navy, retired), U.S. Malaria Coordinator. "President and Mrs. Bush should be credited for this historic effort that will save millions of lives."

      Malaria is the largest cause of disease morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia, with more than 2 million clinical cases and 70,000 deaths per year. Almost 75 percent of the landmass is malarious with 68 percent of the population at risk of contracting malaria. “One million last year alone died on the African continent because of malaria. Moreover, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the victims are less than 5 years old; their lives suddenly ended by nothing more than a mosquito bite. The toll of malaria is even more tragic because the disease itself is highly treatable and preventable and the world must take action,” President George W. Bush said, June 30, 2005

Nets In The News: Katine, Uganda

This article from the UK newspaper the Guardian paints a vivid picture about why insecticide treated bed nets are so important.  To give a bed net to a loved one this holiday season and help prevent the deaths of 3,000 children a day just go to www.malariaNOMORE.org.

Sarah Boseley in Katine
The Observer Sunday December 2 2007

A blue pickup truck pulls to a sudden halt outside Tiriri health centre. Many hands surround it, lift the woman lying in the back and carry her inside to the examination room. She cannot speak and her breathing is laboured.    

Sister Mary Magdalene Anyait, registered nurse and the only member of the medical staff, has a look and takes the woman's blood pressure. Then she strides rapidly out to the pickup to try to persuade the driver to take the patient on to Soroti hospital, nearly 20 miles away. He will not do it. The boss has agreed only to him bringing the women this far. The truck backs away.

Anyait is calm. It's up to her now. The ambulance that should be in the yard is at Soroti. The only doctor is there too - he's unhappy at his posting to a rural health centre with inadequate facilities.

Malaria: A Key Election Issue

Yesterday, Senator Clinton pledged to dramatically scale up U.S. funding for malaria control to U.S. $1 billion a year if elected President, and set the bold goal of ending the estimated 900,000 annual malaria deaths in Africa by the end of her second term.

This would be more than five times current U.S. government spending on malaria. By comparison, malaria spending through the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative is $187 million in 2007.

Sen. Clinton is the first presidential candidate to commit to a specific dollar amount and timeline for tackling malaria. Leaders in the global malaria fight applauded Sen. Clinton’s pledge from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the 13th board meeting of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) was held. Read the press release here: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-29-2007/0004714027&EDATE

Take a look at the full release after the jump!

Hillary Clinton to Malaria: Not On My Watch

Earlier today Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton announced that if elected she would drastically increase United States spending on malaria control and pledge to eradicate deaths in Africa by the end of her second term.  Senator Clinton made this pledge at the third annual Global Summit on AIDS & the Church sponsored by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church.

Our Favorite quote from the Senator's speech is when she said that it is appalling “that one million people die every year from a bug bite, and nearly all of them are children.”  Well said! Below is a full article from the Associated Press about her speech and groundbreaking announcement.

Clinton Urges Sweeping Action on AIDS

By Michael R. Blood

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used an appearance at one of the nation's largest evangelical churches Thursday to sketch a broad agenda to take on disease around the globe, calling it "the right thing to do."

The centerpiece of a speech laced with Biblical references and reflections on her own faith was a call to spend billions of dollars to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases at home and abroad. She said she would try to stamp out malaria deaths in Africa within eight years.

This Holiday Season Give The Gift of Life - Give Nets!

We here at iWill HQ are already getting into the holiday spirit and we hope you are as well.  One of the things we are most looking forward to is giving nets! Each day 3,000 children die from malaria but a simple bed net can stop the disease.  When you are thinking of spreading holiday cheer this season please think about giving a net with one of these easy options:

ECards: Since we all spend so much time on line these days we have brought out our new holiday ecards.  These are a great way to donate a net in honor of a loved one and have Malaria No More send the lucky recipient a festive email.  To send an ecard just go here.

Paper Cards: This season we are also unveiling our new holiday cards! Whether you want to wish someone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or some holiday cheer these cards are a great way to wish a friend or loved one season's greetings.  The price of the card includes the gift of a bed net so please consider giving the gift of life this season - the cards can be viewed here.

Facebook: if you are anything like us you spend quite a lot of time "talking" with friends on Facebook. Why not send your online friends a bed net this holiday? Malaria No More is honored to have been selected by Facebook and Project Agape to be part of their new cause related online gift program! Just go here to send a bed net on Facebook today!

If you have any questions about our holiday net opportunities just email Seth Rosen at seth.rosen@malarianomore.org.

Taking Malaria Out of Our 'Lives" With James Scott!

Not only is James Scott a very talented actor who plays plays E.J. Wells on the long running soap opera Days of Our Lives but he is also a malaria survivor and advocate for Malaria No More! James contracted malaria while in Madagascar and became terribly ill but thankfully recovered with treatment.  Rather then just let this experience pass him by James is using his illness as an opportunity to get the word out about malaria and the important use of insecticide treated bed nets to stop the disease in its tracks!  Below is an advance copy of the brand new public service announcement James recorded to let the public know that malaria can be eradicated with their help.  We Will post the final copy as soon as it is ready but we couldn't wait to share this great video!

Best Friends Tackle Malaria!

We're happy to highlight two best friends that are giving it their all to raise money for nets! Nice job Phoebe and Claudia!

Phoebe and Claudia (BFFs since birth)  heard about the need for bed nets on American Idol Gives Back.  Their combined goal is to send at least 900 bed nets to kids in Africa by September 2008.   The photo below is from their LemonAid stand this past summer.    They raised $10 with the stand (it was a cool day) but that's all needed to save one life.  They sent out emails asking for matches to whatever they raise.  So far they've received 99 matches to their original $10 donation from people ranging from a former NJ First Lady to a fisherman off the coast of Long Island, New York.   They have 800 bed nets to go to reach their goal of at least 900.   Check out the name of their wagon!   

Anyone interested in matching too should contact: Seth Rosen at Seth.Rosen@malarianomore.org