Against Malaria: Empowering people to eradicate malaria

What is it?

The Against Malaria Foundation is an organisation dedicated to empowering ordinary citizens to take responsibility for eradicating Malaria - a disease that causes 3 million preventable deaths a year.

Malaria, unlike many other health issues which affect the developing world, is relatively easy to fix. Yet despite this the governments of the world have not been able to marshal the necessary resources and support. That is why we believe it is necessary to step in where governments have failed.

Why is it different?

We have a simple promise: all of the money raised by individuals buys bed nets, these nets will end up over beds and we can show where all of the nets go.

We can do this because of three things:

• a structure that has virtually no central costs and relies almost entirely on individuals and organisations giving their time and support for free.
• a highly efficient web based funding system which helps people raise money and provides total transparency - so they can see exactly where the bed nets they provide go (pictures, video and even pdf’s of the relevant paperwork).
• a purchasing and distribution system that allows us to buy nets at the lowest price and deliver these using distribution partners already at work in the countries most affected.

How do we raise money?

We raise money through a variety of initiatives. One of our main fundraising activities is the World Swim Against Malaria, first organised in 2005 with the next event scheduled for 5 April 2008. The aim of the swim is to get 1 million people swimming and raising money. Anyone can organise their own swim - all they need to do is register on the World Swim website and create their own page which they can use to recruit swimmers and raise money.

We also encourages people to organise their own forms of participation - providing the necessary support in terms of infrastructure and visibility. Initiatives that have been set-up include:

• Madness Against Malaria - an unique fundraising competition, where teams compete against each other in how they raise money
• Fast Against Malaria - where people fast for one day, to raise money
• MyBednet - a roll-call of people who have purchased one bed net
• AuzzieMozzie - a fundraising and education initiative organised by schools in Australia

Why bednets?

Providing long-lasting insecticidal bednets for the people most at risk from malaria (primarily pregnant women and children) is the single most effective action in combating malaria.

Our trustees, supporters and Malaria Advisory Group

These are our trustees, these the organisations that support us and this is a list of our Malaria Advisory Group members.

The future

The Against Malaria initiative started in 2004 through the actions of one man and a group of his friends. In the three years since then it has grown to become the world’s largest malaria advocacy group in terms of participants. It has achieved this without any significant publicity, relying on word-of-mouth engagement and support from a number of large organisations and institutions who have encouraged people to take part. Its ambition now is to reach out directly to individuals in order to reach its target of empowering 3 million people to take responsibility for eradicating malaria.