Ronald Labonte recently received the following letter from one of the
coordinators of Africa Malaria Day, a campaign supported by the 'Massive
Effort Campaign,' an advocacy NGO attempting to lobby politicians,
multilateral institutions and pharmaceutical companies to deliver on
promises to reduce the huge burden of infectious diseases that
disproportionately affect poorer countries.  Malaria remains one of the
world's biggest killers.  The letter from Philip Coticelli below urges
people to sign on to a global petition urging action, based on promises
made 4 years ago on April 25th, in Abuja, Nigeria.  Please consider
visiting their web-site (which is excellent) and signing on to the
campaign.

 _____

 I am writing to update you on Massive Effort's malaria advocacy work for
Africa Malaria Day this year and to kindly request your active support.

 As you know, malaria kills over one million people, the majority of which
are African children and pregnant women. April 25th is Africa Malaria Day,
marking the fourth anniversary of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) summit in
Abuja, Nigeria to galvanize political will to fight the disease. With a
year left to reach the 2005 targets set there, the outlook is stark.
Resistance to anti-malarial drugs is widespread, and less than 2% of
African children are sleeping under life-saving mosquito nets, which many
African countries still tax.

 To urge greater political will to reach the Abuja targets by next year,
Massive Effort is planning to deliver four separate letters this Africa
Malaria Day to:

 1) African Heads of State, commending progress and urging action where due

 2) The World Bank, a founding partner of RBM, asking it to free up more of
the $500 million it promised to RBM at the Abuja summit

 3) Bilateral donors, the United Kingdom's Department for International
Development, United States Agency for International Development, Canadian
International Development Agency and French Development Agency urging them
to give Artemisinin-based anti-malaria drugs more weight on their agendas,
and to find more money for controlling malaria in Africa

 4) Pharmaceutical Industries, the Association of the British
Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America, Canadian Pharmaceutical Generic Pharmaceutical Association and
International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations
urging greater investment in manufacturing cheaper, safer Artemisinin-based
anti-malarial drugs

 This email is to inform you of the campaign and ask for you help.

 Click here to SIGN LETTERS to ensure the 2005 malaria reduction targets
are met or visit  www.massiveeffort.org/malaria and please CIRCULATE this
email to your network.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would sign the letters and circulate
this email to your network and encourage them to sign our letters too. We
want as many voices to be heard as possible this Africa Malaria Day, urging
political will in the fight to stop a preventable and curable disease from
killing millions of African children each year.

 With sincerest thanks,

 Philip Coticelli
 +44 7787 378 262
 Massive Effort Campaign
  www.MassiveEffort.org



____________________

 Ronald Labonte, PhD
 Director, Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit
 Professor, Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina
 Professor, Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan
 107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan  S7N 5E5   CANADA
 phone:  306-966-2349
 fax:            306-966-7920
 e-mail: [log in to unmask]
 web-site:        www.spheru.ca
 personal web-site:       www.spheru.ca/overview/faculty.html
 _____________________

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