If you knew that a small $10 donation could help eradicate cancer or AIDS you’d do it, right? Of course you would; it’s a no-brainer. Well, United Against Malaria (UAM) plans to do just that: reduce deaths from Malaria to near zero by 2015. Considering most countries, including the United States, haven’t had to deal with malaria since 1951, helping put an end to a deadly disease that disproportionately affects the continent of Africa seems like a reasonable and logical thing to do — not to mention humane.
So how does UAM plan to wipe the globe free of a disease that claims the lives of one million people annually? Tonic talked to actress and Population Services International (PSI)’s Five & Alive program ambassador, Molly Sims, during her recent trip to Washington D.C., where she and local youth soccer teams presented 20,000 signatures supporting UAM efforts to members of Congress.
UAM, which functions through the cooperation of seven founding organizations: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Comic Relief, Malaria No More, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP), ONE, PATH, saw the opportunity in leveraging the 2010 World Cup to raise awareness around the issue. A truly amazing platform since its the world’s most watched event in the month of June and one-third of the players are of African-descent.
Sims explains, “It’s all about the World Cup. It’s using celebrities and soccer players and advocates and politicians — anybody who has a voice to say that malaria can be completely preventable and controllable. You can imagine how many people that will help. A child dies every 30 seconds. So in the length it takes to play a soccer match — 180 people are dead in an hour and a half.” Or as she later put it, “three jumbo-jets worth of people die everyday.” Horrific, considering these are completely avoidable statistics.
In addition to the efforts of the World Cup, NGOs and individual influencers, UAM is seeking governmental support for this non-partisan issue. Sims underscores this fact saying, “It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, rich, red, white or blue. This isn’t an issue of Republican or Democrat — the mosquito doesn’t care.” Sims and other UAM advocates made the rounds on The Hill last week, explaining the facts, the solution and asking for the $680 million that’s already been pledged.
Sims says the best and easiest way to make an impact is by making a $10 donation. “$10 will buy a net for a family for five years — $5 for the behavior change, and $5 for the net. You can get an amazing return on your investment because you can end it. If people get treated, they can live. It’s a pretty good investment to bet on.” We couldn’t agree more.
Some more startling facts about the very treatable and preventable disease:
- Malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds and nearly one million people each year.
- Worldwide, 3.3 billion people are at risk of malaria — that’s half of the world population.
- 91% of malaria deaths occur in Africa; 85% of these are children under 5 years of age.
- In addition to the death toll, malaria contributes to the cycle of poverty and limits economic development: Malaria costs Africa at least $12 billion in lost productivity every year.
- 40% of African health expenditures are on malaria alone.
Photo courtesy UAM.