The fact that 100 per cent of the money we raise goes to fund bednets and that we can show where all the money goes has always been a fundamental part of what we do. It is therefore nice when this specific aspect, rather than the actual fundraising events, gets recognised which is why we are grateful for this post today on the GiveWell blog. Thanks.
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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 the movie and the fundrasing page we have set up.
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As part of the drive to raise awareness of the wider Against Malaria campaign we have been lucky to be able to 'sponsor' a J80 class boat which is competing in the J80 UK and World Championships. As with everything we do, we haven't had to pay for this sponsorship, it has been given to us by one of our trustees, Jonathan Calascione – a keen yachtsman.
The UK national finals were held from 18 to 20 June off Plymouth and our boat, Against Malaria, skippered by Seb Ripard, came a very creditable fourth overall.For more information on the event see http://tinyurl.com/65xauf Against Malaria also came second in the Round the Island Race held around the Isle of Wight in the UK on 28 June. This is the largest race of its kind in the world and so a fantastic result. The World Championships are in Kiel from 7 to 13 July and we are getting a bigger logo for boat so we can make even more of an impact.
We will keep you updated on progress at the World Championships and also get more on the story of the boat from Seb.
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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.
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 850 people recently tool part in an event, organised by Speedo in Malaysia. As you can see, in this report, the event had the added bonus of securing some great coverage from the media.
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 Afew moments ago the total of funds we have raised passed the US$3million mark. This means 600,000 nets provided and, the most important statistic of all, 30,000 lives saved. We have also just recently passed another milestone involving 3 - over 300,000 people have now participated in Against Malaria initiatives. This is a fantastic achievement, but there is still a long way to go to make our next target - which is one million people having participated.
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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.
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If you can get publicity for a swim, that is great, because it helps spread the word about fighting malaria. See this from the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association. Also take a look at this and this from Alex and Tony Linossi. If you want help and advice about publicising your event, please let us know.
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 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.
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Madness Against Malaria is into its third round. Last year's winners, the Beantown 'SkeeterBeaters are showing strongly as are a team called Where There's a Will,There's a Way - which is targeting anyone called Will or who has a will in their name. However, leading in terms of overall money raised at the moment is Molfetta Against Malaria from Italy. Check out the progress here.
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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 9th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 being held in Manchester from 9 - 13 April.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s UK heads of tax, assurance and advisory services swapped their suits for swimmers as they raced against three of the firm’s PAs across the chilly Serpentine lake in Hyde Park today, with enough time to nip back to the office for a day’s work.
In the 8.30am race, Management Board Partners Richard Collier Keywood, Richard Sexton and Ian Powell, faced Caroline Moore, Susan Abraham and Vicki Willis in the relay at the lake, where temperatures averaged 9 degrees. The PA’s won, but only by a fingertip. The event was part of a firm wide day of fund raising activities in the UK marking the start ofthe 2008 World Swim Against Malaria campaign.
 PwC is one of our major corporate supporters and in addition to providing us with professional services the firm’s fundraising activities since 2005 have so far funded the provision of 49,000 bednets protecting close to 100,000 people, mainly children under 5.
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We have just received a good video in from a recent distribution in Gambia. You can see our page that covers this distribution here - http://www.againstmalaria.com/Distribution.aspx?DistributionID=134 As with all our distributions not only can you see pictures or video, you can also see who contributed to these specific nets as well as the proposal and completion reports from the distribution partners. This is all part of our commitment that 100 per cent of money raised buys nets, they end up over beds and we can prove that it happened.
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Some of the world's elite swimmers are behind the 2008 World Swim Against Malaria. This is a video they have just released, produced with the help of Speedo. It's not about swimming fast, or far, but about being part of one million people swimming. So please join them.
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Speedo International is one of our longest-standing corporate supporters and has just announced a fantastic campaign to support the 2008 swim. Speedo has produced a World Swim Against Malaria swimwear line which is being promoted by supermodel Alex Wek and photographer Daniela Federici. Daniela has produced a powerful image of Sudanese-born Alek wearing the swimsuit and Alek herself is also organising a swim and setting up a fundraising page.
In keeping with the spirit of the entire operation of World Swim, 100% of Speedo’s profits from the sale of the swimwear will come to the Against Malaria Foundation and 100% will buy nets.
Speedo has also launched its own Swim Around the World Challenge - which you can support by joining on-line at http://www.worldswimagainstmalaria.com/Speedo
Here is a copy of Speedo's press release.
Here also are high resolution images of the four shots released.
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These are a small sample of the things people are doing to raise nets that have caught our eye recently. There is a huge range of activities from sports, arts, music and special events through to some frankly very odd ones.
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The World Swim Against Malaria is our original awareness and fundraising activity, but its success has lead to other organisations and individuals approaching us, looking to incorporate their own fundraising ideas into our infrastructure. This is something we are very happy to accommodate. One such initiative is Madness Against Malaria, which ran a very successful campaign in 2007 and is about to launch the final stages of its 2008 competition. Madness Against Malaria was set up in the US by Lance Laifer (you can read this NY Times piece for more information on Lance and the Madness initiative). It is a competitive fundraising competition, loosely based on the popular March Madness NCCA Basketball competition. The idea is that you enter a team and see how much money you can raise, during a qualifying period, using the sponsorship page you create on the Madness website. When qualifying ends (14 March 2008 for this year) the top 64 teams go into a series of knock-out rounds where they compete, one-on-one over a two week period, to see how much money they raise. During these early rounds you can have some unlikely pairings - for example a primary school could be drawn against an investment bank. It is a game of strategy because if you raise all your money too early you may exhaust your ability to compete in the knock-out stages. Currently, there are 73 teams battling it out to qualify for the knock-out stages - which will be drawn on 14 March. (Check-out the teams here). It's not too late to enter, especially since you do not necessarily need to have raised a great deal of money to get through to the knock-out stages, which is when the fun really starts. We will keep you up-to-speed with the highlights once the knock-out rounds begin.
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 Tony Linossi, a sprightly 79 year old from Dandenong, Australia, swam in the 2005 World Swim. This time he has got together with some friends and already they have reached a total of over AUS$8,700 (US$7,500) plus a feature in the local paper.
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Todd Lawson and Christina Tottle, two Canadian adventure motorcycle travellers, are about to set off on a trip across Africa to raise money for bed nets. We have created a special logo for their trip - Motos Against Malaria - something we can do for any group or organisation which has a large enough initiative they want to organise using the Against Malaria process. Check out their fundraising page here
Here is an email just received from them in South Africa. They are planning to distribute personally some of the bed nets their money has helped fund. Hey Rob....all is good,spent a great week in Cape Town, now we're in JHB, picking up our bikes soon and will be hitting the road in 10 days or so. Yamaha SA is really excited about the mission, they've invited us on a big ride with hundreds of other riders and they're also doing a magazine article on us so a good opp. to spread the word here in SA. We're topped $5000 CDN mark! Wondering how logistics are coming along. I guess the first pick-up /delivery destination would be good so we can plan route accordingly. no rush tho, we won't be leaving SA until mid/end of March...another month/6 weeks or so. Thanks Rob, hope you're well, T&T We will post any updates or pictures we receive from them as their journey develops.
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 We ask our all distribution partners to take video footage of nets being distributed. This is part of our whole transparency ethos and we feel it is an important part of connecting the people providing the solution to the people facing the problem. Here is a gem of a video from a distribution in Kenya.
It relates to a distribution in Lokichogio that took place back in March last year and it is beautifully done, with some real care taken in editing and providing a soundtrack. It gives a very good feel of what we are all about. You can see more information about this distribution on our website. As with all of our distributions, this page will show you all the relevant information, from the people whose fundraising made the distribution possible through to the proposals and post-distribution reports from AMREF, the distribution partner. This is a fundamental part of our commitment to absolute transparency and accountability as well as providing the tangible proof that 100 per cent of the funds raised is used to buy nets.
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All 230 pupils at Kensington Preparatory School (KPS) are organising a swim as part of the 2008 World Swim Against Malaria. The first half of the school swam last week and have already raised an amazing £4,700. The second half of the school swim next week. One hundred per cent of the funds raised will buy nets to be distributed in the Navrongo region of northern Ghana where KPS has a ‘link’ school, the Navro-Pungu School. People in this area are desperately in need of nets.
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Here is the Economists' recent take on a WHO report for the Global Fund which demonstrates the effectiveness of the free distribution of bed nets in fighting malaria.
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Welcome to the Against Malaria Foundation's Information Hub.
This a place we have created to help get the message out about how to fix malaria and in particular to promote participation in our 2008 World Swim Against Malaria. We are using this site as an on-line press office but also as a place which anyone can use to find out what we are doing.
The posts that follow will be very varied, from brief updates on the latest fundraising activities that people are organising through to more in-depth features about malaria and reports back from our partners working in the field distributing nets.
Here is more information on how to use the Information Hub and here is some more information about us. Please also check-out our main participation sites AgainstMalaria.com and WorldSwimAgainstMalaria.com
At the end of the day, we want to get the maximum number of people involved in fixing malaria, be that through organising a swim, an event of your own choosing or simply through subscribing to this site and passing the word on. Please join us in the fight against malaria.
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