"Faiths Act Together -- Tony Blair Calls for Action" -- by Hannah Wallace

Tony Blair has issued a call to action to encourage people of faith around the world to act together to show the power of “a million good deeds done every day” in the name of religion.

“For billions of people, faith motivates, galvanises, compels and inspires, not to exclude but to embrace; not to provoke conflict but to try to do good. This is faith in action,” he said, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. “You can see it in the arousing of the world’s conscience to the plight of Africa, a cause we in positions of political power tried to answer, but which was driven by people of faith.”

Today, we at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation have stepped up our campaign to raise funds and eliminate millions of unnecessary deaths from malaria – giving people a practical way of demonstrating how faith can heal rather than divide the world.

A million deaths a year from malaria is wholly preventable. We want 2009 to be the year that FAITHS ACT TOGETHER. For this to be the year that people of faith become the change makers and take direct action to tackle this preventable disease.

FAITHS ACT TOGETHER is all about people like YOU taking TWO SIMPLE STEPS:

STEP ONE: Get together with others and use our short film “The Story of a Bed Net” (above) -to raise awareness and funds to combat deaths from malaria. Just $10 will buy one insecticide-treated bed net. That net can protect an entire household from malaria.

You can do this in your neighbourhoods or places of worship; on your campuses or in your sports teams; or simply with a few friends. There are lots of ways to get involved. Ideas and simple step-by-step guides are available on our website.

STEP TWO: Tell us about it!
Once you’ve shown the film, email us with a few words and a photo of the event, which will be posted on The Global Movement Map on our website. Your work will inspire others around the globe.

So get involved and ACT NOW.

Join us at www.faithsacttogether.org

"Death has a name" - by Martin McCann

On April 6th, we went with a beloved Msalato Theological College student, Ayubu Mazengo, to baptize his five-month old son, Martin Nyemo, named for me, the godfather. We meet Mollen, his mother, and the rest of the family in their village. Sandra preaches and does the baptism. It is a joyous occasion. Ayubu related to Sandra some of his dreams and hopes for Martin’s life. Martin looked just like his father, Ayubu, (Job in English) and is robust and healthy.

Click here to see a short slide show of little Martin's baptism.

Slightly over two months later on June 9th, I got a call from Sandra that Martin is very sick. After work I stopped at the local hospital to visit. He was getting IV medicine for malaria and was nursing. I was relieved and brought good news of his progress home to Sandra. No one could have been more surprised than me when the next day Sandra calls to say he had died in the morning. How fragile life is. We were devastated.

Sandra was asked to do the sermon for the funeral that day. We went back to Martin’s village that afternoon for the sermon and burial. Many faculty, students, and staff from Msalato went with us. The massive assemblage of people from the village was overwhelming. It was too much for words to describe, and we felt photos were not appropriate. Sandra’s sermon was as uplifting as one could be in such a situation.

Martin was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid out on a kanga on the dirt floor of his home. For the funeral service, which took place on the grounds outside his home, his body was placed under a tree on a low table. After the service, we gathered at the gravesite a few hundred meters from Martin’s home. A priest friend of Ayubu jumped down into the grave and received the body, which he laid on the floor of the grave. Some men then handed down to this priest pre-cut tree branches that he wedged into the sides of the grave above the body. The result was what looked like a ladder lying flat above the body. A piece of a plastic feed sack was laid on this wooden lattice upon which were placed piles of beautiful green leafy branches followed by layers of deep red bougainvillea. (While this was happening, a priest leaned over to Sandra and said, This is the way we make our coffins.) Then the red earth was shoveled on top of the flowers after those around the grave had thrown in handfuls of dirt saying, Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. The gravediggers filled the grave to overflowing and meticulously molded and smoothed the heaved-up mound of dirt with sticks. Finally, they laid the handle of the shovel onto the molded earth and made the vertical and horizontal imprints of the cross in the red dirt. Men around the grave then gathered small stones and filled in the imprints producing a natural stone cross. At the close of the service- family and friends came and laid more bougainvillea on top. It was all very moving, very beautiful, and very sad.

The death of a child in the West is no less traumatic for the families involved, it is just so much less common. Worldwide there are 300-500 million new cases of malaria annually. It is the most deadly vector-borne illness, causing 3.5-5 million deaths annually. Many of these deaths are in children 1-4 years of age. It is estimated that in Africa a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. Treated bednets are a priority of the World Health Organization’s program, Roll Back Malaria.

A fellow priest wrote to Sandra after hearing of Martin’s death: Guess we need to preach more about sleeping under mosquito nets and making sure that we destroy all breeding places than preaching about soul winning and going to heaven! A lot also needs to be done to reduce the delays and shortcomings in delivery of treatment. A major problem has been the emergence of Chloroquin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum (the major killer and commonest form of malaria in Africa). Millennium Development Goal #6 is to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

In our grief, Magi Griffin, the other Atlanta missionary in this diocese who had gone to Martin’s baptism with us, reminded us in a sweet note: Death has a name. Precious Martin. How easy it is for us to fall into the terrible trap of thinking that because death is so common here that it is not as traumatic for them as for us. Martin’s death has certainly brought this home to us. Although we have watched his family cope in a very heroic and stoic fashion, nevertheless we have witnessed the picture of deep grief etched in their faces; we have seen their silent tears; we have heard the quiet groans of grief that only a mother could make.

I have heard many people from abroad say: Death is different here. People just accept it. It is just a part of life. The latter is a true statement, but the fact that it is common does not in any way reduce the particularity or the pain. As Magi so aptly reminded us, Death has a name.

One of the hardest things to accept about Martin’s death is that we do not think that this would have happened in the West. Poor village families are late to get to a hospital because of distance, lack of transport and money. And even after getting to a hospital, we find ourselves wondering if treatment is appropriate and timely. I think most of the missionaries feel that if malaria were such a huge problem in the US or Europe that even if a cure or vaccine had not been discovered, we would have found ways to successfully control it. We are grateful for the NetsForLife program. We tell Martin’s story not only because it is the one we know but also in the hope that it will encourage you not to forget that it is individuals with names who are make up those overwhelming statistics which can make one’s eyes blur over.

Dr. Martin McCann set up a histopathology laboratory in the Mackay House Anglican Mission Clinic in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. In addition, he is working as a consultant and teacher at the Mvumi Anglican Mission Hospital in the same diocese. He and his wife, the Rev. Dr. Sandra McCann, are living in Tanzania as appointed missionaries of The Episcopal Church. You can read more about their life and work at www.mccannmission.org.

"A $10 Mosquito Net Is Making Charity Cool" -- By Donald G. McNeil, Jr., The New York Times

Excerpted from the June 2, 2008 edition of The New York Times.

Donating $10 to buy a mosquito net to save an African child from malaria has become a hip way to show you care, especially for teenagers. The movement is like a modern version of the March of Dimes, created in 1938 to defeat polio, or like collecting pennies for Unicef on Halloween.

Unusual allies, like the Methodist and Lutheran Churches, the National Basketball Association and the United Nations Foundation, are stoking the passion for nets that prevent malaria. The annual “American Idol Gives Back” fund-raising television special has donated about $6 million a year for two years. The music channel VH1 made a fund-raising video featuring a pesky man in a mosquito suit.

It is an appeal that clearly resonates with young people.

Addressing a conference of 6,000 Methodist youths in North Carolina last year, Bishop Thomas Bickerton held up his own $10 and told the crowd: “This represents your lunch today at McDonald’s or your pizza tonight from Domino’s. Or you could save a human life.”

The lights were so bright that he could see only what was happening at his feet. “They just showered the stage with $10 bills,” Bishop Bickerton said. “In 30 seconds, we had $16,000. I’m just lucky they didn’t throw coins.”

Part of what has helped the campaign catch on is its sheer simplicity and affordability — $10 buys one net to save a child. Nothing But Nets, the best-known campaign, has raised $20 million from 70,000 individuals, most of it in donations averaging $60.

That is a small fraction of the overall need, which experts estimate at $2.5 billion. But it gives the effort a populist edge, and participation is psychologically rewarding for anyone whose philanthropic pockets are shallower than those of Bill Gates.

“The first time I donated money, after my bar mitzvah, it was for someone who needed a heart transplant,” said Daniel Fogel, 18, a founder of his Waltham, Mass., high school’s juggling club, which raised $2,353 for nets last year. “But I had the feeling: Am I really helping? But if you can say $10 saves a life, that makes students feel they can help a lot. And every student has $10.”

Emily Renzelli of West Virginia University learned about malaria on a trip to South Africa. She raised about $1,000 through bake sales and parties where students were snagged in nets and not released until they recited facts about malaria.

Naomi Levine, an expert on philanthropy at New York University, said young people “more than ever want to do something.”

“You won’t find them giving money to research,” she added. “It’s too far off. But a net is something you can hold in your hand. And any time young people get interested in any form of philanthropy, it’s a good thing.”

Read the entire article here.

Click here to find out more about Nets for Life, the excellent Episcopal anti-malaria program of Episcopal Relief & Development, Christian Aid and HopeAfrica.

What's all the buzz about? $500 for an anti-malaria campaign on your college campus, that's what!

From our friend Seth Green at Americans for Informed Democracy

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS WANTED

Are you ready to change the world? Then, we’re ready to support you in doing it!

A coalition of non-profit organizations have just announced a new initiative called Buzz Cuts that will support young leaders who want to join the fight to prevent malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Buzz Cuts will give ten students $500 grants to implement entrepreneurial campaigns on their campuses to raise awareness and funds to prevent malaria. Students selected for the initiative will also receive an all-expenses-paid, two-day training on malaria advocacy and fundraising in Washington, D.C.

Buzz Cuts is a collaboration of Americans for Informed Democracy, the People Speak, and the Nothing But Nets Campaign. The initiative seeks to encourage college students to use their fresh, innovative ideas to support a global movement that saves lives. We want YOU to raise awareness and funds to support the global fight against malaria. And we want you to film what you do and make it into a "Buzz Cut" or video toolkit that other students can use to put on events on their campus.

Find out more about BuzzCuts here.

Submit your project proposal to BuzzCuts here.

Questions -- email buzzcuts@aidemocracy.org or call 203-773-1202.