Call to all you people out there..

Nazzal directed me to an article by Ralph Nader about Malaria which gives us all a heads up about on a few events and touches on a topic that should just make you a little angry and fired up to help.
First things first (before getting to the interesting ways you can help):

• Malaria Kills 1.3 to 2 Million people per year...
• The equivalent of 7 jumbo jets full of children die every day from malaria
• The disease threatens 40% of the world's population
• A $5 net over a bed can mean the difference between life and death (how many nets can be bought with how much we spend on a watch, a mobile phone, a second third or fourth car..one night's dinner?)

1. For swimmers out there: There is a World Swim for malaria that you can get people you know (family, friends, classmates and your co-workers) to take part in..All you need is a pool or a beach, and we have lots of those available here...you know how this is done..you get people to sponsor you with a few KD (or a lot) and you pledge to swim a certain distance..You can register your swim here..the worldwide swim is happening Dec 3rd, and if you have access to an indoor pool you can take part on that day BUT you don't have to have it on that day..you can choose to do it in the summer...as of today there are no registered swims for Kuwait..who's going to fill up that page?
2. For basketball fans: There will be a Dunk Malaria I event on March 19. It's the same idea, you set up a dunk contest and raise money and awareness around the issue of malaria. C'mon school teams out there..yalla.
3. For unsporty types who still want to help in some way : You can pledge money to people you know are swimming or dunking, and also rustle up all the participants you can think of and get them to swim/dunk/pledge...you can also donate money to the Global Fund and to Doctors Without Borders
4. For those with access to the press: Turn the spotlight on malaria..it is a preventable killer..get your paper/show to cover any of the events taking place, like the swim/dunk events..

Malaria: from the words mal=bad and aria=air in old Italian. It was thought that you caught the disease by breathing the bad air around swamps..now we know it comes from the bite of a mosquito and they tend to live around swampy wet areas..