The World Health Organization estimates that of the one million deaths that occur from malaria each year, up to 200,000 would be avoidable if the drugs were effective, of good quality and used correctly: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/2003/fs275/en/

This is why Hedge Funds vs. Malaria and Africa Fighting Malaria recently launched the March of Washingtons - the first and only grassroots effort to buy and test malaria drugs.  We want to make those 200,000 deaths disappear and help bring the other 800,000 down to zero by making sure every African child has access to safe and effective drugs.

Here's the idea: George Washington had malaria.  George Washington is on the one dollar bill.  For one dollar we can buy a good quality and effective malaria treatment for one child AND conduct quality control testing of malaria drugs on the market.  Fake and substandard malaria drugs are a big problem in Africa.  AFM's recent research found that 35% of antimalarials sold in six major African cities failed basic quality control tests:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/health/13glob.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

This means a mother buying malaria medicine for her child has a 65% chance that it will work - we need to bring that up to 100%.

We'll publish an official March of Washington’s press release and launch next month listing the first 100 organizations to join us.  Would your organization like to sign on? All you need to do is reply to this message or write to [email protected] and sign your organization on.

Thanks for your consideration!

Sincerely,

Philip Coticelli

Africa Fighting Malaria

http://fightingmalaria.org

P.S. You can read about the results of AFM's work to raise awareness of substandard malaria drugs in Kenya and Rwanda here:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9in0Ta9xUL0-FhsUE3jI7eszTug and here

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13545&article=6710. Help us keep the momentum going by signing on!