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.

It’s crunch time, college kids! The deadline is approaching for the “World Briefing: Telling the Malaria Story” contest to win a FREE trip to Kenya. To enter:

• Write a personal statement of 500 words – that’s like only 2 blog posts!
• One tweet – OK, we’re talking about one sentence here
• Submit all your materials before midnight – no all-nighters necessary – this Friday!

The grand prize winner will be announced the week of September 21^st, and will travel to Nairobi, Kenya to report live from the global MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference November 2-6, 2009. The winner will meet African and international journalists covering global health issues, attend presentations with top malaria researchers and travel to local clinics to interview healthcare workers and patients – AND report on their experiences via articles, blog posts and tweets!

With your words, you can help spread the word about malaria and create real change – not to mention, ditch the classroom for a week!

Make sure to check out ALL the details on our site.

Gates Foundation Program Officer and MNM Board Member Gabrielle Fitzgerald is blogging for the ONE Campaign during her trip to Tanzania with the WHO’s Dr. Margaret Chan, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria Mr. Ray Chambers, and the Gates Foundation’s Dr. Tachi Yamada.

See below for an excerpt from her most recent post, Day Four: Bulimba, Uganda – Yes, we will help!

After leaving the village, we headed to Balibaseka Secondary School, where Uganda’s Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya, hosted a ceremony to welcome the delegation, honor the volunteer drug distributors and educate the community about malaria.

After schoolchildren recited a poem reminding their listeners of the symptoms of malaria, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, asked all the young people in the audience to help in the fight against malaria. They all shouted back in unison, “Yes, we will help!”

Read the full post here.

Gates Foundation Program Officer and MNM Board Member Gabrielle Fitzgerald is blogging for the ONE Campaign during her trip to Tanzania with the WHO’s Dr. Margaret Chan, the UN Special Envoy for Malaria Mr. Ray Chambers, and the Gates Foundation’s Dr. Tachi Yamada.

See below for an excerpt from Day Three: Zanzibar, Mnazi Mmoja Hospital:

This visit capped a day where the delegation learned more about Zanzibar’s incredible progress in the fight against malaria. Over the past decade, Zanzibar’s malaria prevalence has dropped to less than 1 percent, virtually eliminating hospital admissions and death due to malaria. 
Despite the good news, Zanzibar’s history provides a cautionary tale in the fight against malaria. This is the third time in 40 years Zanzibar has come close to eliminating this disease. In the past, the government gave up the fight too soon, and malaria came surging back. This time will be different, vow officials at every level of the government.

Read the full blog post here.

Malaria No More Policy Center Director, Mark Green, is making waves in Washington with his Op-Ed piece in today’s Washington Times. Read an excerpt from the article and the Malaria Policy Center blog:

Despite some initial positive steps by the Obama administration and Congress, a critical constituency is missing from the discussion: congressional conservatives. As a proud fiscal hawk and a true believer in the power of U.S. foreign assistance to lift lives and enhance alliances, I urge conservatives to get more engaged and embrace the opportunity this debate presents.

Saving lives in Africa is not a political platform and we recognize that our partners in the fight against malaria are not Democrats or Republicans, instead they are people of good will wanting to see an end to preventable deaths. Everyone should be at the table to reform the way policy is driven and everyone should be at the table when we end the scourge of malaria.

This just in from the Malaria Policy Center:

UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, announced while in Tanzania that The Global Fund is giving the counrty a $111 million grant to purchase bed nets.

The money will buy and pay for the distribution of some 14 million bednets helping Tanzania reach the UN’s 2010 goal of universal bed net coverage in Africa.

Great news! Tanzania has been a leader in the fight against malaria. By aggressively going after universal coverage—and subitting a strong and sophisticated plan to do so to the Global Fund—Tanzania is working to become Africa’s next success story against malaria!

Ray Chambers, the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, released the following statement upon the publication of the Declaration of Responsible Leadership for A Sustainable Future, set forth by G8 leaders this week at their meeting in Italy.

“At a critical moment in the global campaign against malaria, the G8’s reaffirmation of its commitment to fighting the disease adds greatly appreciated momentum to our collective efforts. 

“I look forward to continuing to work with the governments on fulfilling their 2008 pledge to supply 100 million lifesaving mosquito nets, so that together we can meet Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s goal of the universal provision of malaria control interventions by December 31, 2010. 

“In particular, I wish to thank the G8 for its recognition of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, an organization that will prove absolutely essential in our shared mission to end deaths from this disease.”

Also, be sure to check out Ray’s guest blog post at the Millennium Villages Blog, entitled “Nigerian Mosquito Net Deliveries Protect Millions from Malaria“.

We thank Ray for his leadership and vision in the fight against malaria! For more information, please visit www.malariaenvoy.com.

This post was originally published on the Malaria Watch blog at the Malaria Policy Center:

Last Friday, the Global Fund – one of the key engines of support for malaria — elected Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health of Ethiopia, to serve as the next Chair of the Board.

This is good news for the Global Fund, good news for the malaria community and good news for Africa.

At a time when the Global Fund is facing escalating financial and administrative challenges, the Board is well served to place this effective leader at the helm. The level of respect and admiration for Tedros runs deep within the malaria community. As the former Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Board, he’s a proven leader who gets things done – even within a diverse constituency whose interests can diverge.

His leadership within Ethiopia has produced equally impressive results. Through the scale up of malaria control efforts in 2005 – including the distribution of 20 million mosquito nets – malaria cases in the country dropped by 60% and reported deaths fell 51% – all in just three years. It’s a dramatic success story that shows just how quickly we can begin to turn the tide against this disease. And its practical experience that will serve Tedros well as he takes on this new challenge.

These leadership skills will be put to the test quickly as the Global Fund confronts a significant funding shortfall, now estimated as high as $3 billion for 2010. It will be up to Minister Tedros to help maintain the tremendous gains that the Global Fund has made in the fight against malaria, as well as TB and HIV. We’re confident Tedros is up to the challenge.

Malaria No More congratulates Minister Tedros on his new position and we look forward to working with him to reach the international goal of ending malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

Wendy Taylor is Senior Vice President for Global Advocacy at the Malaria Policy Center, a project of Malaria No More.

This past weekend, a team of us here from Malaria No More headed up to Wilton, Connecticut for the 28^th Annual Wilton Nutmeg Invitational Tournament. We weren’t just there to cheer on talented young girls as they competed for the top prize, but we were also there to bring awareness about malaria to aspiring young soccer stars and their parents. We set up a large tent with malaria information and encouraged the players to particpate in the Speed Shot, where a sports radar measured how fast each player could kick a soccer ball. The Speed Shot contest was successful in riling up plenty of fun, spawning quite a few sibling rivalries, and of course, teaching the kids about what malaria is and how we can stop it.

We had the kids kick the balls into actual bed nets, the same kind families in Africa use to protect themselves from the bite of a malarial mosquito, and we also hung up mosquito targets for the kids to aim at while kicking. It was a weekend full of giving the boot to mosquitoes!

The kids also had a visit from Congressman Jim Himes, a member of the Congressional Malaria Caucus, who came out and showed his support for the United Against Malaria campaign and also took some pictures with the lucky winners of the Speed Shot competition. Those winners also walked away with some United Against Malaria jerseys as well as tickets to a New York Red Bulls game.

But most importantly, the winners and all participants alike walked away armed with the knowledge of how to fight the malaria menace.

Nikilesh Eswarapu is an intern with Malaria No More. His fastest kick at the Speed Shot was 38mph which, incidentally, is only slightly faster than the fastest 9 year-old.

FCB's Seydou Keita Raises Awareness

As a part of their Play City initiative with Nike, Youth Noise, a social networking site for young people looking to make a difference in the world, and a consistent supporter of our work to fight malaria, gave a shout out to More Than A Club in their feature blog post today.

To get the scoop, Youth Noise blogger Trina Chiasson interviewed me about my first hand experience at Barca’s April 22nd match, during which the team took time to raise awareness about World Malaria Day (April 25th). During the interview, we also had time to cover the recent More Than A Club-supported net distribution in Mali and discuss how FC Barcelona’s three players from West Africa, Seydou Kieta, Samuel Eto’o and Yaya Touré donated their time to record life-saving video messages that will be used to educate their countrymen and women about the importance of sleeping under mosquito nets.

I want to thank Youth Noise for their recognition of More Than A Club and encourage all the young athletes out there to seize on the example set by FC Barcelona.

To learn more about how you can change the world through sports visit www.MoreThanAClub.org and check out Youth Noise’s Play City initiative which encourages and enables athlete-activists to use sports to revitalize communities and catalyze change.

P.S.: Check out another blog entry about MNM on Youth Noise—thanks for helping to keep awareness high!