October 26, 2006—South African singer, Yvonne Chaka Chaka – the woman known as the Princess of Africa – today called on African nations to ensure funds to fight malaria aren’t stolen or siphoned off.
Her call came at the launch of a public awareness campaign held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC and organized by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, as part of a global effort to “Unite Against Malaria” – with the audience including more than 20 African ambassadors.
Malaria is Africa’s number one childhood killer. And as World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told the crowd, each year one million people – 90 percent of them children – were dying from malaria.
“Just stop for a minute and do the arithmetic. That works out to 3,000 people per day. It’s one World trade Centre per day and it’s a preventable disease.”
South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, performed as part of a global effort to “Unite Against Malaria" at World Bank headquarters in Washington DC.
Chaka Chaka, who is also UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador for Malaria, urged African nations and donors to deliver on their promises to fight malaria and to ensure there was transparency in the use of the funds.
“What I would like to see is all the governments making sure that there is total transparency – money is used accordingly and money does not go and buy good houses. – money does not go to the Swiss Bank. Money is not stolen. Money is put into good use,” she said.
Transparency in spending was a key theme when 28 African ambassadors and members of the Roll Back Malaria partnership met after the launch to discuss the next steps in the campaign against the disease.
“African countries in this initiative are not recipient countries. They are also actors and they also want to be part of the solution,” said the Executive Secretary of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck.
Roll Back Malaria is an umbrella partnership and today’s event was part of a multilingual public awareness campaign sponsored by them.
The public awareness campaign features TV and radio messages that will be broadcast throughout Africa enlists top African soccer stars and entertainers, such as top international soccer stars as Chelsea striker Ivorian Didier Drogba and Marseille’s Wilson Oruma of Nigeria. They warn of the dangers of malaria and urge parents and communities to protect young children from the disease.
“This disease, malaria, is a terrible thing. Now, to make sure you don’t get it, a mosquito net is the most reassuring means of prevention,” Drogba’s message says.
“Protect yourselves against malaria. Protect your children, because they are the future of Africa.”
The Footballer vs. Malaria public service announcements will be showcased at the three-day United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit in New York from October 29 to 31, and at the UN General Assembly Hall during the Youth United Against Malaria Concert on October 29.
Though no vaccine exists for malaria, the disease is preventable and treatable. Yet it’s thought to claim the life of an African child every 30 seconds.
The World Bank and other members of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership—the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)—have partnered with 20 African countries to combat malaria.
For its part, the Bank has stepped its own efforts against the disease in Africa through the $500 million Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa.
The program, launched a year ago, helps countries pay for such preventive measures as spraying inside homes and insecticide-treated bednets, as well as medications to prevent and treat malaria.
The goal is to cut Africa’s 850,000 malaria deaths in half by 2010, and in half again by 2015.
For his part, Wolfowitz said he was sometimes concerned malaria was overlooked, because it was not a disease prevalent in countries like the United States.
“Sometimes I feel as though malaria is a little bit of a neglected problem, because we don’t suffer from malaria here in the United States or in Europe or in other rich countries, “ he said. “But it’s just as much a plague for the people who suffer from it and those who survive malaria are often debilitated for life, miss valuable years of education and many many days at work. The costs are really enormous.
However he said it was possible to control malaria in Africa and “it must be done.”
RSS