An estimated 50,000 people helped bid farewell to the Fiesta Concert Series in Tanzania, which ended its annual summer tour this weekend in Dar es Salaam with a headlining performance by Lil’Kim.

The crowd in Saturday’s final concert was the largest ever in the concert series’ history and a great audience for the Zinduka! Malaria Haikubaliki campaign, which partnered with the annual music tour to spread the message of practicing malaria prevention to hundreds of thousands of Tanzanian youth. Since the start of the summer music tour, Zinduka! has been incorporated into concert performances, radio promotion and community visits by artists, helping popularize the campaign’s mission of ending malaria deaths in the country.

Although the summer concert series is over, the Zinduka! campaign will continue its mission of promoting malaria prevention and helping end malaria deaths in the country through upcoming fall programs, including the Kilimani Sesame book distribution.

Youssou NDour, one of the most celebrated African musicians in history, played for one night only at the Barbican in London this week. Youssou took time out from promoting his new album to talk about how he is using world music to educate people about malaria prevention in Africa and to raise awareness about malaria in the US & UK.

Our friends at Malaria No More UK sent us this clip of Youssou speaking about his work on malaria—and his new music style—with BBC’s Radio 4. Listen to the interview online.

Youssou is a board member of Malaria No More and is also the leader of the Xeex Sibbiru campaign in his home country of Senegal. Learn more about how Xeex Sibbiru is using music to change the way people think about malaria in Senegal and across Africa.

The Fiesta Concert Series continues to transmit the message of the Zinduka! Malaria Haikubaliki (Swahili for “Wake Up! Malaria is Unacceptable) campaign through its country-wide music tour. This past weekend, the traveling concert series visited Dodoma, a city in the heartland of the country, where it attracted more than 27,000 attendees.

Prior to the Saturday concert, Zinduka! Goodwill Ambassadors Mwasiti and Barnaba visited a hospital in the area to speak with malaria patients and doctors. The visit was broadcast live on regional radio and included interviews of Mwasiti and Barnaba who took malaria rapid diagnostic tests and encouraged the public to get tested for malaria if they have symptoms and seek treatment if they test positive. The Zinduka! Ambassadors also spoke about the urgency of Tanzanians to “wake-up!” and protect themselves from the disease, which accounted for more 12,500 deaths in the country last year.

This year, Clouds FM (one of the largest radio stations in Tanzania) and Prime Time Entertainment, the organizers of the Fiesta Concert Series teamed up with Malaria No More to reach rural and country side communities and raise awareness about malaria protection, testing and treatment. In each city and region it visits, the music series will incorporate the Zinduka! Malaria Haikubaliki campaign in its performances and promotions, making malaria the key social cause. The traveling music series will culminate on August 8^th with a final concert in the country’s capital city of Dar es Salaam.

Amanda Adami is a representative from the national student-led nonprofit organization Millennium Campus Network. The group’s goal is to spread awareness about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which includes the U.S. commitment to the fight against malaria. Amanda’s blogs about the Day of Action to rally people behind the goal.

In September of 2000, leaders of the 191 United Nations member countries met in New York City and formulated a
plan to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Unanimously, these leaders agreed upon eight comprehensive and attainable goals, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). If fulfilled, the MDGs will provide the poorest 17% of the world, who live on less than a dollar a day, with the opportunity to attend primary school, access to clean water, better child and maternal healthcare, and a sustainable future.

Reversing the incidence of malaria has moved into the forefront of policy maker’s agendas, as the 6^th Millennium Development Goal is to Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases. As nearly half of the world’s population is susceptible to contracting malaria, it is vital we ensure this goal stays a priority and receives proper attention at the upcoming UN summit.

It is not only tragic, but also outright unjust that 1 in every 5 African children dies from malaria each year. How are these children expected to overcome the hardships of poverty, such as lack of education or access to clean water, if they are ravaged by disease?

In order to tackle global poverty, we must take a holistic approach, and understand that each goal is deeply linked with all of the others. We must unite our voices and push our leaders to fulfill the promises they have already made to Goal #6, ensuring the success of the remaining seven. We cannot afford to let this opportunity for real policy reform to pass unnoticed.

We know the goals are achievable. The most pressing question that remains is whether or not we as Americans will take small steps within our own means, to stand up and do something to end poverty and end malaria deaths in our time. Will you?

This past weekend I traveled to Salt Lake City to represent MNM at the United Against Malaria Speed Kick Contest at the Impact United youth soccer tournament. The tournament hosted 110 local teams and their fans

The Speed Kick Contest was the last in a series of nine UAM sponsored youth soccer tournaments leading up to the World Cup. And this tournament had the added bonus of being on the home turf of 2009 Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup champions Real Salt Lake. The team, which got involved in UAM through MLS W.O.R.K.S., Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative, generously provided their mascot Leo the Lion to entertain the players at the UAM Speed Kick booth.

In between games, young soccer players, parents, and coaches alike crowded the UAM booth to put their kicking skills to the test, while also learning about the fight against malaria and how they can get involved. The event was a success: by the end of the day, talk of soccer goals had turned into conversations about our goal of ending malaria deaths by 2015.  

Click here to learn more about UAM.

(Oh, and who had the best kick of the day? None other than Real Salt Lake mascot Leo the Lion, who wowed passersby with his combination kick-cartwheel-flip move!)

My semester abroad is starting to look like a bunch of hocus pocus. After months of studying art and Italian history and speculating over the mysterious Medici murders, some of that schooling now seems silly.

Ora, I’ve been back 5 year and the Medicis dead over 400, the truth is finally out. The verdict isn’t family feud — but fiery female mosquito!

According to MSNBC.com, MALARIA, not poison as long rumored, killed Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello. The couple died a few hours apart in October 1587. Their almost simultaneous deaths led to speculation that they had been murdered.

This reminds me of the recent news of another world famous royal proven to have also fallen victim to the same fiend.

Reports say the World Cup drew in over 700 million viewers across the globe- 5,000 of those viewers happened to include soccer enthusiasts, young and old, who attended the Chicago World Cup Festival in Soldier Field this past Sunday. The event, put on by Chicago’s South African Consulate, transformed the Chicago Bear’s stadium into a proper World Cup “festival village,” with vendors, performances, and youth and adult soccer tournaments to entertain the growing crowds in the ramp up to a Finals viewing party.

And, United Against Malaria and Malaria No More were there to get on the action. With a brightly branded booth in the middle of the village, we took advantage of the buzz around the upcoming battle between Spain and the Netherlands, and had the opportunity to educate passersby about an even greater struggle taking place on the African stage-the fight against malaria.

Perhaps the great triumph on the day was when United Against Malaria and Malaria No More PSAs were showcased on the stadium Jumbotron, featuring some of the greatest heroes from this years Cup, like Emmanuel Eboué and  Kolo Touré of the Ivory Coast, and their contributions to fighting this preventable disease.

With a presence at the Speed Kick Station at youth tournaments in Salt Lake City, a messaging takeover at Soldier Field in Chicago, and United Against Malaria leadership at Soccer City for the Finals, it was hard to ignore that this weekend truly exemplified the spirit of United Against Malaria- across the globe, footballers and fans simultaneously were coming together to take on malaria. And, it’s a fight we want everyone to win.

For many of us, summer is usually a time to enjoy the beach, the latest blockbuster summer movie and great outdoor concerts. In Tanzania, youth across the country enjoy the popular, travelling Fiesta Concert Series, an annual summer music tour that features Tanzania’s biggest music stars and attracts up to 40,000 people at each stop.

The Fiesta Concert Series, which kicked off last Wednesday and is scheduled to visit nine regions throughout the country, is incorporating the Zinduka! Malaria Haikubaliki campaign in it performances and promotions, making malaria the key social cause in every community it visits. Concert performers like Zinduka! Goodwill Ambassador Diamond will promote malaria awareness and prevention on stage and take part in community visits to hospitals and clinics to witness malaria activities in regions that the traveling concert series visits. The malaria education campaign will also receive heavy radio promotion from radio stations in target communities – reaching a large swath of the Tanzania’s diverse population.

The Fiesta Concert Series is just one of the many popular, existing platforms that Malaria No More is using to drive home the message of protecting oneself from malaria and to create a culture of net usage that will help end malaria deaths by 2015.

The Zinduka! Malaria Haikubaliki campaign in Tanzania is made possible by donors and supporters like ExxonMobil.

Crowds, including a healthy contingent of local and national Senegalese press, packed Pikine stadium and the rooftops of surrounding buildings to witness the first United Against Malaria / Xeex Sibbiru (‘Fight Against Malaria’ in the local Wolof dialect) Celebrity Cup last week.

The much anticipated match pitted Senegal’s football legends against a team comprised of contemporary Senegalese footballers and famed musicians, including Blackburn Rovers El-Hadji Diouf and grammy-award winning singer Youssou NDour. Both teams wore uniforms featuring the UAM and Xeex Sibbiru crests.

The good-natured competition saw the two teams exchanging lots of goals and friendly trash talk knowing that win or lose, both teams were accomplishing their ultimate goal…raising awareness about malaria. The match, which will be aired on national TV later this week, featured speeches by Youssou NDour and other noted players encouraging the people of Senegal to use mosquito nets and seek treatment for malaria. TV broadcasters joined the chorus of voices speaking out against malaria, taking time out from their match coverage to acknowledge the UAM campaign and it’s significance.

Players and musicians alike also used the occasion to record a public service announcement for United Against Malaria that will air on TV alongside the match and throughout the coming months in Senegal. Learn more about the United Against Malaria campaign here.

For those of you not lucky enough to be in Dakar for the Xeex Sibbiru Song Contest, we wanted to share some details. Take a minute to join in the experience and see how MNM’s innovation is having an impact in Africa:

• Learn more about one of Malaria No More’s signature initiatives, Surround Sound Senegal, on our website round-up, including a video of the winner—Djibril Diop—performing in front of the crowd.
• You can also access amazing behind-the-scenes footage of the finalists rehearsing before the concert and see how East meets West in a jam session with Diamond, our incredibly talented guest from Tanzania’s Zinduka! campaign.
• To meet the contestants, head over to the Dakar Calling blog, where Peace Corps volunteer extraordinaire Adam Horowitz introduces the world to the Xeex Sibbiru Song Contest finalists.
• Press coverage of the event was widespread in Senegal and beyond, including in Newsweek, Agence France Presse, Voice of America and Huffington Post.

Thanks to our partners and supporters of the Surround Sound program at ExxonMobil for making Xeex Sibbiru happen!