Rotaractors Against Malaria is launching a fundraising campaign during April, called MALARIA MONTH!
Why April? World Malaria Day is acknowledged in Australia on the 30th of April, but since Rotaractors Against Malaria is our national project, Rotaract Australia have decided to devote the whole month to fundraise and spread awareness of malaria’s effects on our close neighbours, PNG and the Solomon Islands.
This is a great time for Rotaractors to strengthen the global fight against malaria. The latest stats show that we are making good progress:
- 2000 – 2015: Worldwide disease incidence down by 37% (32% in 15 worst countries, 54% in the rest). 6.2 million deaths averted*.
- Under 5’s death rate down by 65% = 5.9 million child lives saved!!
- 2007 – 2014; malaria eliminated in UAE, Morocco, Turkmenistan and Armenia. 13 more countries had zero cases and 6 more had <10 cases.
Despite this progress the issue is far from resolved: in 2015 there were 214 million cases worldwide and 438,000 deaths.
How can I help? Malaria Month, our online fundraising platform, will send funds directly to our partner RAWCS project “Rotarians Against Malaria” who are delivering bed nets and health initiatives to PNG and the Solomon Islands. All donations are tax deductible.
Malaria Month will launch for fundraiser registration on Sunday 20th March. This give fundraisers time to set up their profiles, decide on a fundraising target, and drum up some enthusiasm in their Rotaract clubs and local community. Individual Rotaractors, Rotaract clubs, Rotarians and non-Rotaractors can all sign up for fundraising pages. Registration is FREE.
How can I encourage people to donate and reach my fundraising target? We have a few ideas to kick off, but you can do anything you want to encourage your friends, family, colleagues and sponsor Rotarians to donate. Some suggestions are:
- Pledge to give up a habit or start a new one during April e.g. give up coffee for the month, walk to work every day
- Display statistics about malaria on your fundraising page and social media profiles, and have conversations about this topic (see stats at the end of this article)
- Organise a club fundraiser (trivia night, bbq, bake sale) with the proceeds going to a team fundraising page
- Let people know what their donation can do e.g. AUD$10 can deliver a LLIN bed net to a family in a remote district in PNG.
Ready…set…Malaria Month! For more information on how to sign up, please contact pr@rotaract.org.au
***
The WHO (World Health Organisation) GTS (Global Technical Strategy for Malaria Elimination 2016-2030) calls for 90% reduction world wide by 2030 and elimination of malaria from 35 more countries by 2030. Those 35 would include all the countries where the RAWCS project “Rotarian Against Malaria” currently works.
The three pillars of the GTS are:
- ensuring universal access to malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment;
- accelerating efforts towards elimination and attainment of malaria-free status; and
- transforming malaria surveillance into a core intervention.
These are perfectly aligned with Rotarians Against Malaria’s PNG initiative ‘Chasing Malaria’ and Solomon Island initiative ‘Healthy Villages’. Globally our main tools remain LLINs (bed nets) and IRS (indoor residual spraying) – vector control.
