SurfAid reaches major milestone in malaria campaign

This is a link to an article just published on a great SurfAid initiative which we have also been helping. Check out the article and you can see here and here what our role has been.

Its nice to know we are making a difference

Last year, we organised a distribution of 240 bed nets to Sumbe in Cameroon.  You can see the details and some pictures here.

Usually pictures or video together with the completion report from the distribution partner are all that we get to see.  This is great because it is what we need to provide the transparency and proof of action that is fundamental to how we go about things.  However, it is always nice to receive slightly more informal feedback about the impact on the lives of the people concerned.  That is why we were very pleased to receive this from Gilbert B. Ayuk, a native of Sumbe but who now lives in the US and was reporting back following a visit to the village.

Dear Rob Mather,
On behalf of the people of Sumbe Village in the South West Province of
Cameroon, I wish to thank all of you at the Against Malaria Foundation and your principal partners for your donation of 240 nets to the people of  our village. Your donation has led to a blanket covering of all sleeping spaces and has led to a dramatic fall in the incidence of malaria in a village that is located deep in the tropical forest of Africa.

The people of Sumbe village are appreciative of your coming to their
assistance.

Gilbert B. Ayuk
(Sumbe native, resident in the US)

Thank you Gilbert.

Motos Against Malaria – now back home

A year ago, Todd Laswon and Christina Tottle set off on motorbikes to travel the length of Africa both raising money for, and also distributing, bed nets.  We helped organise the logistics for this and created with them the “Motos Against Malaria” initiative.

They have finally reached the end of their epic quest having travelled over 23,000 kilometres through 15 countries.

You can read all about their journey here and see some more wonderful images.  If you want to support them, you can find their fundraising page here and here is where you can track the places in Uganda where they were able to distribute many of the bed nets their money funded.

Remember also, we can work with you to create your own fundraising initiative.

Why 100 per cent?

One of our major promises is that we can guarantee that all of the money anyone raises with us will be spent buying bednets at the world’s lowest price.  We often get asked how we can make this promise.

The answer is that our operating costs are very low and these are covered by some private donations, so we don’t have to take a percentage off donations to cover administration.  While we only have two people who effectively work full-time for the organisation we have many people and organisations who work with us – but they give their time and services for free.  These include lawyers, accountants, printers, bankers, advertising agencies, film makers, professional translators, web technologists and graphic designers (a full list of people to thank is here).

Igor: the movie – changing the world one bed net at a time

On September 19 the movie “Igor” opens in cinemas across the United States.  This is an animated feature based on the exploits of a character who lives in the land of Malaria and features voice-overs from John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge, Sean Hayes, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon, and Christian Slater.  The producers of the movie, Exodus Film Group, and Malaria.com have asked us to help them raise money to fund bed nets, capitalising on the interest in malaria that the movie will generate – something we were happy to do in our role of empowering anyone with a fundraising idea to turn money raised into bed nets that are proven to end-up over people’s heads.

Here is a link to some more information – as well as a link to the movie’s site, Malaria.com and the fundrasing page we have set up.

Some recent fundraisers

Here are some examples of recent fundraisers. They range from people substituting nets for wedding and birthday presents, small corporate initiatives through to events designed to supply nets to specific desired locations, which we have been able to accommodate.

Zuzana and Sven’s wedding: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/weddingzuzanaandsven

Luke’s Birthday nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/LukeMonson

Worldwide chain of nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/bednetschain

People running up hills: http://www.againstmalaria.com/Fundraiser.aspx?FundRaiserID=4720

A group raising nets for Burkina Faso: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/SOSEnfantsBurkinaFaso

A company’s 75^th anniversary: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/SchwankAnniversary

Vets buying nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/Vets4Nets

Its not only Africa

Sub-saharan Africa tends to be the focus of activity against malaria. However, there are many other regions of the world at risk and where we also fund the distribution of nets as this new video from Nicaragua shows. This very well produced video (in Spanish) charts the distribution of 3,500 nets to an area made especially vulnerable by the damage wrought in September 2007 by Hurricane Felix.

World Malaria Day – April 25

This Friday is World Malaria Day. There are going to be many activities taking place around the World to raise awareness about Malaria – check this page for more information. However, if you want do something we would recommend joining the One Million Faces Against Malaria – Project Blackout initiative http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4110666657

An example of bespoke fundraising

One of the things we can do is match a specific fundraising initiative to a specific distribution. Here is a good example. Danyi’s Children is an organisation that, since 2003, has been fundraising specifically for the children of Danyi N’Digbe in Togo. They wanted to raise money for 500 long-lasting insecticidal nets for the village and we therefore provided everything they needed to make this happen. We have just received their video of the nets arriving and you can see this and all the other details here.

UK Soap Stars swim with Speedo

Speedo have marked the start of their campaign to support the 2008 World Swim Against Malaria by organising a swim relay with stars from some top UK TV soaps and 30 school kids. Helen Flannigan (aka Rosie Webster from Coronation St), Dominique Jackson (aka Lauren Valentine from Hollyoaks) and Tony Audenshaw (aka Bob Hope from Emmerdale) together with kids St Johns School in Chorlton successfully swam 2008 metres in a pool in Manchester’s MEN Arena. This pool had been specially constructed to host the 9^th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 being held in Manchester from 9 – 13 April.