malaria

Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Nets save lives. So do retweets. RT2Give $10 http://rt2give.com/t/425

The messaging is so powerful, so clear, and so tweetable – and with the World Bank’s bold announcement yesterday that they are stepping in to fill half of the 50 million “bed net gap,” the Case Foundation together with Malaria No More and Twitter thought there was no better time to launch a citizen driven campaign using the powerful force of the 100 Million users on Twitter.

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• At present 200 million mosquito bed nets have been delivered across sub-Saharan Africa, affording protection to half of the world's population at risk of malaria.  
• 100 million more bed nets are in the process of being produced and delivered, leaving a 50 million bed net gap to meet the United Nations Secretary-General's goal of universal coverage by year's end.  
• Every thirty seconds a child dies from malaria in Africa. However, malaria is a completely preventable and treatable disease.
• There are approximately 50 million "tweets" sent across the twitterverse each day
  

On Wednesday, the UN Envoy for Malaria Ray Chambers, appointed a group of 50 Social Media Envoys dedicated to utilizing their social profile to keep online and offline media audiences focused on the movement, milestones and resources required to achieve the Secretary-General's goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010. From Kim Kardashian and Shaq to Bill Gates and Steve Case, these social media influencers are stepping up to use their collective 50 million person following for social change.

We saw the recent power of "texting to give" to the tune of $35 million raised through a variety of campaigns related to the tragic earthquake in Haiti.  These campaigns were a game changer for how we use mobile to respond to crises.   Now together through the powerful combination of tweeting to give and texting to give - we can educate, raise awareness, and help eradicate Malaria for the world’s most vulnerable.

So what can Social Citizens do to show their support and become social media envoys among their own networks? Please visit hope140.org/endmalaria and:

•  Tweet this message to make a $10 donation to Malaria No More: Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Nets #endmalaria. So do retweets. RT2Give $10 http://rt2give.com/t/425 ( If you already have an account through Twitpay, you’ll receive a direct message from @Twitpay asking for confirmation. If you don’t have an account, @Twitpay will send you an @reply message with simple instructions on how to enroll).
• Text ‘NET’ to 85944 to make a $10 donation to Malaria No More. (A $10 donation will be charged to your mobile phone bill. Messaging and data rates may apply)
• Add hashtag(s) #endmalaria, #malaria, #malariaday and/or #worldmalariaday to your tweets and the hastags will trigger the addition of  clickable mosquito icons to the tweet that will take you to hope140.org/endmalaria

The Case Foundation will be matching every ten dollar donation now through April 27 up to $25,000.  The “End Malaria” effort is an extension of last year’s World Malaria Day Twitter challenge between Ashton Kutcher and CNN for a race to 1 million followers. Kutcher’s pledge of $100,000 to Malaria No More catapulted him to success and helped provide Senegal with 89,724 life-saving mosquito nets.