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.

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.

Who will you vote for? Nick, Jessica, Chris, Anna?

The graduates are in! We read all the contest entries and promoted 10 students to our Top 10 for you to vote on! Top 10 entries are available on our site so you can judge for yourself. 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.

Forward your favorite to a friend and watch them win!