"United Against Malaria": using football to fight malaria
Zurich/Geneva, 18 October 2009 - A global team of key actors in fight against malaria - multilateral organisations, NGOs, foundations, governments and corporations - has joined forces with football stars and celebrities ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa to roll back a preventable and treatable disease that still kills nearly a million people a year.
The "United Against Malaria" campaign will be officially launched this November and run until the end of the FIFA World Cup 2010. The campaign is already gaining momentum with pledges for support announced by football teams and players and celebrities including singer Bono, actress Ashley Judd and philanthropist Melinda Gates.
United Against Malaria will support the United Nations goal of universal access to diagnostic tests, mosquito nets and malaria medicine in Africa by the end of 2010. This is a crucial first step in reaching the international target of reducing malaria deaths to near zero by 2015.
Malaria, a preventable disease, affects 247 million people per year, 86% of them in Africa. Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and a founding partner of the United Against Malaria campaign presented the campaign at the FIFA Medical Conference on 18 October 2009 in Zurich, in front of representatives from 180 national football associations.
“Malaria needlessly ends the lives of nearly 1 million children each year, mainly in Africa. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the United Against Malaria campaign are truly grateful to FIFA for its support. If we can harness the passion for football in Africa and in the world now to help educate young people about the prevention and treatment of malaria, countless lives can be saved,” she said.
Speaking after the FIFA Medical Conference, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said: “FIFA welcomes the United Against Malaria campaign in its important work to combat this terrible disease. We are happy to help mobilising support around the globe to provide health, education and a better future for every child on our planet.”
Full details of the campaign are available at www.UnitedAgainstMalaria.org.
NOTES TO MEDIA:
About United Against Malaria:
The United Against Malaria campaign aims to galvanise global action to reach the 2010 target of universal access to malaria diagnosis, prevention and treatment, a crucial first step to reaching the international target of reducing deaths to near zero by 2015, through: 1) strengthening political and public will in donor countries to increase malaria programming and funding; 2) strengthening political commitment by African leadership to prioritize malaria control; and 3) increasing consistent, appropriate utilization of prevention tools and malaria treatment in Africa.
Partners in United Against Malaria include Comic Relief, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Malaria No More, ONE, PATH, Population Services International, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the United Nations Foundation, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
www.UnitedAgainstMalaria.org
About the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) :
RBM was launched in 1998 by WHO, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank and is the global Public Private Partnership to fight malaria.
For further information please contact:
Herve Verhoosel, External Relations Manager of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership
United Nations Plaza 2 – New York +1 212 963 6003, verhoosel@un.org
Cell/mobile + 1 917 345 52 38
Herve Verhoosel will be in Zurich on Oct 16-17-18 and in Brussels on Oct 19
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