Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia is proud to announce that at least twenty hedge funds are participating in the Hedge Funds Wear Blue Jeans World Pneumonia Day event. These hedge funds are encouraging their colleagues to wear blue jeans to work on the first World Pneumonia Day, Monday, November 2, 2009. This free event is part of a broader effort to encourage everyone to wear blue jeans to school and work on World Pneumonia Day.
More than two million children under the age of five die from pneumonia each year even though it is preventable (there are vaccines) and treatable (there are antibiotics). Worldwide, pneumonia deaths account for more than one in five deaths of children under the age of five. Yet, despite its overwhelming death toll, pneumonia is underfunded, never talked about, and rarely mentioned in the news media.
To express a sense of urgency in fighting the pneumonia emergency, Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia started the wear blue jeans to work movement. Lance Laifer, Founder of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia said, "We know we must fight for every child's life as if that child were our own and we know that almost every person in the hedge fund industry has never even had a conversation about pneumonia-related childhood deaths". He continued, "We feel that wearing jeans to the office will help us get the conversation started."
Blue jeans were chosen as the integral part of the pneumonia fighter's uniform because blue is the official color for the fight against pneumonia (signifying a child's struggle to breathe when he or she battles pneumonia) and because wearing blue jeans is a simple way for people to raise awareness.
Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia wishes to thank the following firms for committing to encourage their colleagues to wear blue jeans to the office on Monday, November 2, World Pneumonia Day. Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Dunbar Capital Management, GLG Partners, Greenlight Capital, Gotham Capital, JHL Capital Group LLC, Kingsbrook Partners LP, Litespeed Partners, McAdoo Capital, Inc., Para Advisors LLC, Resilient Capital Management, Seneca Capital Management, Scoggin Capital Management, Sheffield Asset Management, Spencer Capital, Third Point LLC, Tilson Funds, Titan Advisors, LLC, TZP Group, Union Avenue Advisors and Wriston Capital.
About Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia: Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia's mission is to create grassroots support to end easily preventable and treatable deaths due to malaria, pneumonia and other diseases and to help improve the lives of those saved through education and economic development. Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia is a 100% volunteer organization, is not a 501c3 and has no expenses. All the funds it helps collect are used to help other organizations.
About World Pneumonia Day: Save the Children, PneumoADIP at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, and the GAVI Alliance united in April to establish an annual World Pneumonia Day on November 2, 2009. The day will mobilize efforts to fight a neglected disease that kills more than two million children under the age of five each year worldwide. To learn more about World Pneumonia Day please visit http://worldpneumoniaday.org
