How businesses can help end malaria, for good
Last week was a busy week for our friends at Malaria No More UK, launching a massive new campaign in advance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April. They want to put malaria at the top of the global health agenda and make sure that we’re the generation that puts an end to this vicious disease, for good. Headed up by David Beckham in a video directed by Ridley Scott Associates, this campaign packs a powerful punch and is already making waves across social media and beyond as people get behind their message #malariamustdie.
Malaria No More UK were one of the first charities to sign up to our platform, and received the biggest single donation last year — over £8,000 from a seasonal promotion led by The Web Kitchen. We wanted to check in with them to learn more about the impact of their work and how business support makes a difference.
What’s the mission of Malaria No More UK?
Our name sums it up, we exist to make sure that we can be the generation that ends malaria for good.
Why Malaria?
No parent should lose a child from a totally preventable and treatable disease. The majority of deaths from malaria are children under five who are most vulnerable to a disease that costs less than £1 to treat.
Even through we’ve made huge progress in tackling the disease, a child still dies every two minutes from malaria. It keeps keeps more children out of school in Africa than any other disease and drains families’ earnings taking up to a quarter of households’ income.
It puts unnecessary pressure on fragile health systems and can account for up to 40% of a country’s healthcare spend.
The disease costs the African economy more than $12 billion every year and slows the economic growth of countries with high malaria rates by 1.3% — it’s draining countries, continents and communities.
Malaria takes its toll on the poorest and continues to keep them in a cycle of poverty.
What do you do?
Malaria is a complex disease so it takes lots of different approaches and partners working together to tackle it.
Influencing: We influence decision-makers, from governments to international bodies and leading corporations.
Collaborating: We collaborate with and support partners large and small on the front line and in the policy arena.
Awareness-raising: Whether it’s in political corridors, the press or in your front room, the more people that know about our fight, the more we can do.
What difference does business support make to your cause?
No one can beat malaria alone, and businesses can play a role in the fight as much as anyone. We collaborate with like-minded brands and businesses across the world, including Fever-Tree and Rentokil Initial. And we welcome support from businesses of all sizes, not just those with big brands and names behind them.
We’re really pleased to have the backing of a platform like Work for Good that helps us access support from smaller businesses that can be hard to reach. Every gift, every mark of our support for our campaigns, brings us one step closer to ending malaria.
If you’re inspired to put your business behind the fight against malaria, or one of the many other fantastic causes on our platform, please get in touch to find out more.
