Late in the evening of March 22, I landed in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with colleagues from UNICEF and the International Federation of the Red Cross. This was Malaria No More’s first visit to the country, and I was anxious to get my own first glance at this bulging capital city—but the night sky allowed only the faintest outline of the Congo River. 

My colleagues and I were in Kinshasa to participate in a four-day training workshop for the DRC’s National Malaria Control Program. In pursuit of reaching universal mosquito net coverage by the end of 2010, Africa is preparing to absorb $3 billion in new public sector malaria funding over the next two years. While this is great news, the new avalanche of funding brings implementation challenges to the country staff responsible for turning funding into results.

Given the enormous amount of work required to reach the 2010 targets, Malaria No More is working with the Alliance for Malaria Prevention to equip 18 countries with the knowledge and skills to plan early and realistically, plus share knowledge with each other about what efforts have been successful and how to build on those successes.

Since the DRC carries one of the heaviest malaria burdens in Africa, the DRC had its own dedicated workshop.

Despite the logistical challenges of traveling in the DRC, malaria program staff based throughout the vast country assembled in Kinshasa for the four day training workshop. Sessions on all aspects of net distribution including procurement, provincial coordination and monitoring and evaluation were conducted in partnership by Congolese and international health experts. As a result of the training, the DRC’s malaria control program staff revised the country’s Plan of Action and more clearly defined technical support needs going forward. 

Having grown up in peaceful America where travel across states is nearly effortless, I was moved by the dedication of this group to better their challenged and beloved country. Malaria No More will continue to support the DRC as it works to improve the lives of its citizens by safeguarding them against malaria.

Christina Roberts is Director of Program Operations at Malaria No More. She has a new appreciation for New York Public Transit.

Seydou Keita and Joan LaPorta Hand Out Nets

I just returned from an amazing few days in Bamako, Mali for the launch of a new school and center founded by FC Barcelona’s Foundation. FC Barcelona’s “XICS” center – complete with a computer room! – offers education, health care and professional training to some of Bamako’s most vulnerable children. 

Malaria No More had the great fortune of participating in the Center’s launch alongside FCB President Joan Laporta, Malian star and FCB player, Seydou Keita, the Malian Minister of Health and many others.  With funds raised from participants here in the States of our “More Than a Club: Kick it to Malaria” partnership with FC Barcelona, we were able to provide 1,000 mosquito nets to children and their families. 

One of the most compelling moments of the day’s events – aside from a gripping football match that went to penalty shots! – was Keita speaking to a group of wide-eyed children about how he didn’t have a net when he was a child and of the importance of sleeping under them.  Many thanks to Keita for being a great role model!

Today is World Tuberculosis Day.  Here at Malaria No More, we’d like to pause to recognize the fight against this global disease and support our partners in global health for the work they’re doing to combat this scourge.

Tuberculosis—or TB for short—is a contagious disease that most frequently attacks the lungs, manifesting itself in hacking coughs. In 2006, 1.7 million people died from TB.

As is the case with malaria, no person has to die from TB. It’s a treatable condition that can be cured with medication that costs only $20 for a course of treatment. However, the world is using decades-old treatment. More research into new drugs is needed to combat emerging resistant strains of tuberculosis across the globe.

Learn about what you can do to Stop TB at www.stoptb.org. And set your calendar for World Malaria Day, which is only 32 days away!

Martin discusses malaria strategy with MTN’s Tshepo Ramodibe

Last week, the fight against malaria in Africa got a major “signal boost” with the announcement that MTN—Africa’s largest cell phone company with more than 90 million subscribers in 21 countries—is taking on malaria.

At a day-long event in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, MTN unveiled its new marketing campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa: We Can’t Wait. Let’s Go 2010. The slogan has special resonance for the malaria community, which has set its own goal of protecting everyone at risk of malaria in Africa with life-saving mosquito nets and medicine by December 31, 2010.

MTN is planning to use its texting feature to remind people to use their bed nets and seek treatment for malaria, increase malaria education with a major ad campaign and distribute nets and malaria information at its cell phone sale centers.

MTN’s efforts are part of a campaign by leading malaria advocacy and technical partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Malaria No More, Johns Hopkins University’s VOICES project, the UN Foundation, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, the ONE Campaign, Comic Relief, and the Office of the UN’s Special Envoy for Malaria to use the first Fifa World Cup in Africa to promote malaria awareness, prevention, and treatment.

Martin Edlund is Communications Director at Malaria No More. He texts about malaria constantly.

Malaria No More is teaming up with Patrón Highcroft Racing for Miles to End Malaria to raise funds and awareness for the race to save lives from malaria throughout the 2009 American Le Mans Season.

Patrón Highcroft Racing is kicking off the fundraising efforts by donating five dollars for every mile the team completes in the 2009 race season—approximately 4,500 miles—to Malaria No More.  That contribution will be matched by the team’s sponsor, Tequila Patrón, for a starting point of $10 per mile.

That’s a bed net for every mile—and race fans from across the country can be part of the team! Fans can pledge as little as one penny per mile and watch the team’s progress on the track turn into lives saved. Malaria No More will use all donations to send mosquito nets to families in need in Africa.

Adding to the cool factor, Patrón Highcroft Racing has put the Malaria No More logo on its brand new Acura ARX-02a racecar.

The program officially launches this Friday, as the team prepares for its first race of the season, the Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 21^st. Learn more about Miles to End Malaria at www.MilesToEndMalaria.org.

The malaria-fighting community is an inventive—if eccentric—group of people. To spend all day, every day, relentlessly focused on eliminating a tiny bug (regardless of the fact that this tiny bug has enormous capacity for harm) is, by definition, to be a little bit crazy.

So it follows that the introduction of mad scientists into our happy clan was, in many ways, inevitable.

A fantastic article in the Wall Street Journal tells the story of Dr. Wood and Dr. Kare, two astrophysicists who once worked on President Reagan’s Star Wars project, and who are now working on a new way to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes…with lasers:

…researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light. The insects survived this particular test, which used a non-lethal laser. But if these researchers have their way, the Cold War missile-defense strategy will be reborn as a WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction…

Fighting malaria with laser beams. Welcome to the Final Frontier.

The UK’s Red Nose Day—a project of Comic Relief—has raised nearly £60 million to help poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people turn their lives around across Africa, throughout the world’s poorest countries and closer to home here in the UK. This year, Comic Relief put a special spotlight on fighting malaria in Africa.

Red Nose Day invited people across the UK to “Do Something Funny For Money” and donate to this great cause. In addition, several British celebrities climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise funds and awareness about malaria on the continent. Comedy specials aired on the BBC and the whole country took part in the effort to improve lives around the world.

Red Nose Day gets it name from the red clown noses (which change in style from year to year) worn across the country to make the day.

Have you every done something funny for money?

To help kick off Red Nose Day in the UK, several British celebrities climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise awareness about malaria and raise funds to fight the disease. Red Nose Day is sponsored by Comic Relief and encourages people across Britain to ”Do Something Funny for Money”

Luckily, this was no joke for Gordon Brown…

He pledged an additional £2 million to fund work to prevent the spread of malaria and other diseases in Africa, alongside the £1.6 million which has already been raised through sponsorship of the climb.

The UK is gearing up for tomorrow’s Red Nose Day…check back here then for more information! <<Update: more details available here>>.

Click here to see Gordon Brown meeting with the Kilimanjaro climbers at Number 10.

Last night, I attended a screening of the documentary “A Powerful Noise” Live. The film was screened in 450 movie theatres across the United States and featured a town hall discussion (broadcast live from New York) after the film with Madeleine K. Albright, Natalie Portman, Christy Turlington Burns, Nicholas Kristof, and Dr. Helene Gayle, moderated by Ann Curry.

The film follows the lives of three women in Mali, Vietnam and Bosnia and Herzegovina and how they are making a Powerful Noise to change the lives of the women and girls around them. It’s a wonderful film and beautifully edited—I highly recommend it. Learn more about the film here.

In the post-film conversation, Madeleine Albright noted that she has a saying: “There’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women.”

Straight to the point, and true. Every year, 200,000 women lose their babies due to malaria during pregnancy and 3,000 mothers lose a child. We’re working to help these women protect their children and help them to grow up happy and healthy. You can too.

Ananda Grant is Director of Program Strategy and Planning at Malaria No More. She helps other women.

Yesterday, I attended the Hedge Funds vs. Malaria World Health Summit here in New York.  The summit discussed how the world is fighting malaria, what progress we’ve made and what challenges we face.  One thing that seemed to shock all of the panelists and participants was the number of people in the room—the malaria community has grown astoundingly in the past several years, keeping in line with hugely increased awareness, new funding commitments and a building global momentum for the fight against the disease.

One of the most interesting moments, though, came from the panel on how Neglected Tropical Diseases can use the same methods that the malaria community has used to galvanize the public to fight other global health problems. David Marsh of Save The Children made an excellent (and sardonic) point about pneumonia:

“I think it’s the spelling. We’d have made much better progress if it weren’t for the fact that no one can spell the disease.”

I think David’s got a point. Pneumonia kills almost 2 million children every year and is a global health issue that deserves attention. So how do we market it? My suggestion is “Pneumonia: Hard to Spell, Easy to Solve”—what’s yours?