American Idol Gives Back: Raising Money and Awareness to End Malaria Deaths in Africa

Who knew? Ryan Seacrest Holds the Solution: A $10 Bed Net Saves Lives. Like millions of others around the world, my teenager and I have gotten hooked on American Idol. This week the hit produced a two program special called "Idol Gives Back" which raised money through donations to the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF), a registered US charity. Every time a viewer called in to vote for their favorite singing contestant, sponsors (Allstate, ConAgra Foods, ExxonMobil, Ford, CocaCola and AT&T) made donations to CPEF.

Malaria No More is one of the charities that will receive some of the money raised. April 25, 2007 is Malaria Awareness Day, marking the seventh anniversary of African leaders from 44 countries participating in a summit to end this devastating disease. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Africa is a continent that has been decimated by this preventable, treatable illness. Malaria has been controlled and eliminated in much of Asia, Europe and the Americas, but in Africa, the number of cases has increased. No one in the US gets malaria, yet it is the single leading cause of death for children under 5 in Africa.

Insecticide treated bed nets for families to sleep under cost as little as a $10 donation .
It is wonderful to see Fox TV bringing this urgent global health issue into our living rooms. Let's help make a difference.

For more on Malaria go to:
http://www.malarianomore.org/press.php#mnews

Thank you Gary Moyes/Comic Relief Ltd for use of photo Seacrest distributing malaria bed net to mother and child.

Labels: africa, american idol, global health, malaria, ryan seacrest

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