May 4, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
The African Medical and Research Foundation is waging war on malaria and turning to the Internet for new recruits.
Visitors to the Nairobi health organization’s new SWAT Malaria Web site can learn about the disease’s human toll in sub-Saharan Africa, the obstacles it poses to economic development, the interaction between malaria and HIV/AIDS, and the tools that are available to both prevent and cure malaria. And a visitor can sign up to be a member of the SWAT team, a group of online supporters dedicated to raising awareness and money to combat the public-health problem.
Participants have the opportunity to rise in the ranks of the SWAT team — from private all the way up to colonel — by making donations, organizing fund-raising events, and sending e-mail messages to ask friends and family members to help fight the disease.
The most important goal of the campaign is to educate people in the developed world about the seriousness of the problems malaria poses for African nations, says Chris White, director of the organization’s malaria program.
“If we heard tomorrow on the news that avian flu was suddenly killing 3,000 children a day, the entire world would be mobilized around the problem,” he says. “We do have a disease that is currently killing 3,000 children a day, and it’s something we can actually do something about.”
To get there: Go to http://www.swatmalaria.org.
