Our own Kate Campana recently visited Tanzania to scope out the scene for our future awareness program, similar to the “Surround Sound Senegal” program we helped launch in Dakar in June. The Tanzania awareness program would offer support to the government of Tanzania for the Universal Coverage Campaign. In 2008 and 2009, MNM distributed 267,000 mosquito nets in Tanzania as part of a 7.2 million mosquito net distribution.

While there, Kate met with Alex Mwita, manager of the National Malaria Control Program, PSI Malaria Control, Johns Hopkins, health partners and country leaders to discuss current initiatives, future net distributions and necessary actions to support activities moving forward.

The highlight of her trip was visiting with the Tanzania House of Talent (THT) in Dar es Salaam, an NGO that shelters disadvantaged youth and helps them improve their livelihoods through artistic talent. THT is the only Tanzania center that invests in the lives of young people through performing arts, regardless of their social, educational or financial background. Through integrating performing arts into the Tanzanian awareness program, we hope to inspire social change and encourage positive and proactive behavior change towards malaria in the people that live there.

Details on next year’s Tanzania awareness program will be available soon. Continue to check on Buzzwords for program updates.

You’ve heard of “Text to Give”—but how about “Text to Live”?

Novartis has teamed up with Roll Back Malaria, Vodafone and IBM to design, develop and implement the SMS for Life pilot project in Tanzania to make sure all malaria patients have easy access to the life saving anti-malarial medication.

The first step to ending malaria deaths in Africa is to provide universal access to malaria control tools including nets, spraying and effective medicine—and when treating malaria, quick access to the right medicine is a matter of life or death.

SMS for Life harnesses the power of mobile technology to determine availability of medicine at health facilities and ensure that the need to replenish is communicated quickly and effectively.

In the pilot program, over 94% of all health facilities in the Lindi District of Tanzania are sending weekly updates on their stock via cell phone. If successful, this project could have far reaching benefits:  timely tracking and management of supplies means that medicine can arrive where they are most needed.

And that’s gr8.

American Idol announced today that it will host the third-ever “Idol Gives Back” charity special on April 21, 2010 — and Malaria No More has been chosen as a beneficiary!!!

“Idol Gives Back” has raised millions of dollars to help fight malaria and shown millions of Idol fans across the country that every individual can be a hero in the fight against malaria.

Thanks to Idol and the generous sponsorship of ExxonMobil, we have distributed mosquito nets in Uganda, Zambia, Angola, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and strengthened our programs in Africa to save lives.

We have traveled to Africa with Idol alums Jordin Sparks and Melinda Doolittle and worked with Elliott Yamin and Brooke White to help raise awareness.

We’re looking forward to another great “Idol Gives Back” in 2010!

Saint Isabel Orphanage and School (OSCI) in Luanda, Angola was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from ExxonMobil to help improve their facilities to better fight malaria and protect the children that stay there.

In addition, and in conjunction with American Idol finalist Elliott Yamin’s performance at the 1st Annual Washington Ideas Forum today, the ExxonMobil grant will also cover the launch of an art-based malaria prevention education program at OSCI.

Elliot, a champion in the fight against malaria, said:
When I visited Angola as part of Idol Gives Back, I saw how devastating malaria is in Africa and that there are some basic actions we can take to save lives. Saint Isabel provides hope and new lives for the children of Luanda, and I am very honored to support its efforts.

ExxonMobil does a lot of amazing work in the malaria space and we’re proud to work closely with them to end malaria deaths in Africa. Thanks to their support through American Idol’s Idol Gives Back, we’ve been able to expand our programs in Africa by strengthening country capacity and improving the delivery and use of malaria interventions.

We’ll continue to track the progress being made at OCSI and you can too by visiting their site.

Nigeria–the country that carries a THIRD of the world’s malaria burden—is part of a never-before-seen effort to aggressively cut malaria deaths within its borders. Thanks to huge investments by the World Bank, USAID and others, Nigeria is distributing 63 million mosquito nets in just 18 months.

See here a CNN report on the effort:

Thanks to all of the finalists and voters for participating in the “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story” contest. We were amazed by the quality of the writing and the passion of so many young people who are ready to rid the world of malaria. After calculating the votes from the public and our panel of four expert judges – we are delighted to announce that the winner of the contest is Jessica Uno!

Jessica’s essay was ranked the highest by our collective panel of experts, a conclusion that was echoed by a strong showing in the public vote. Read Jessica’s essay here.

Jessica will travel to Nairobi in November for the 2009 MIM Pan-African Conference and will report back via MalariaNoMore.org and other outlets on what she’s seeing, learning and experiencing. Be sure to check back at MalariaNoMore.org to read Jessica’s blog and find out how every student can make their voice heard and help fight malaria.

We are hugely grateful to all of the finalists for submitting their incredible essays and standing with us and our co-sponsor Novartis Pharmaceutical Inc. to make Malaria No More.

Today at the United Nations, African Leaders will gather to launch the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, an influential forum for reviewing progress, addressing challenges and crafting solutions to meet malaria targets. The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, has noted that real malaria gains will only be made with support from the very top of government.

Many African presidents, including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, have made malaria a priority in their countries and other African leaders are signaling their commitment to ending malaria deaths within their borders and across the African continent.

In this interview with Voice of America (mp3), Ray Chambers discusses progress in the fight against malaria and the common goal of ending preventable malaria deaths in Africa by 2015, as well as the economic benefits of defeating malaria.

And on BBC World Radio (mp3), Chambers notes that we’re at a unique moment in time, in which we have the tools and the resources to fight malaria. He says that he’s not aware of any other issue in which people from all walks of life—government, NGOs and individuals–have come together to battle a disease so successfully.

Learn more at the new website, www.ALMA2015.org.

Be sure to tune in tonight to the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The team traveled to Tanzania over the summer to learn about the country’s aggressive efforts to fight malaria, what the US President’s Malaria Initiative is up to, and the latest on vaccine trials in the south of the country.

Tonight, they present their findings about how Tanzania is winning the fight against malaria.

Read more about the program and get a sneak peek here.

Next month, a high fashion mosquito ring will take flight in the UK. British jewelry designer Stephen Webster will make a statement with his larger-than-life mosquito ring, designed to highlight the serious issue of malaria among UK travelers (between 1,500 and 2,000 travelers return to the UK with the disease every year) and raise funds for MNM UK.

Beginning October 9^th, 300 limited edition charity rings will be available at ASOS.com for £50, which will buy 10 lifesaving mosquito nets and protect 20 African children from malaria for 5 years. Join the fight and give malaria the finger!

Check out more about this new fashion accessory at Malaria No More UK’s website!

According the New York Times and new data from UNICEF, child deaths have fallen to their lowest levels since 1970.

The child mortality rate has declined by more than a quarter in the last two decades — to 65 per 1,000 live births last year from 90 in 1990 — in large part because of the widening distribution of relatively inexpensive technologies, like measles vaccines and anti-malaria mosquito nets.

Malawi is one of the many African countries making progress, and largely due to Malawian high school students that took 10-week health training courses and acquired the knowledge and tools (like bicycles) to help sick children in the community. These students are able to help mothers by providing them with birth control and malaria medicines for the family.

We still have a long way to go until we reach our 2015 goal of eliminating malaria deaths in Africa. But it’s great to know we’re getting closer every day.