On March 15 when the New York Knicks basketball team faces off against the Atlanta Hawks in New York's Madison Square Garden, shots taken in the stands may steal the show from action on the court.
In an inaugural "Dunk Malaria" event leading up to a global Malaria Action Day on March 19, everyone in attendance at the March 15 game will be invited to participate in a "micro wave" - dropping balls through mini-hoops passed around the stands to raise awareness about a disease that kills over a million children a year. Organizers hope the global event four days later will foster publicity around the world.
The campaign was featured at a press conference at the United Nations this week, hosted by Djibril Diallo of the UN Office of Sport for Development and Peace, who said games can unite communities in common cause. John Starks, a Knicks executive and former star, told journalists that his company is excited about the opportunity to help save children's lives. He said he expected other professional teams to join the effort, noting that Dikembe Mutombo of the Houston Rockets basketball team is already building a hospital in his native Congo.
Dunk Malaria is the brainchild of Lance Laifer, founder of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria, who says malaria is the world's "worst marketed disease." Laifer said he only recently found out that malaria still existed, when he saw a television interview with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia's Earth Institute and head of the UN Millennium Project.
Laifer said he could not ignore the news that a preventable, treatable disease that he had thought was eradicated is still such a potent killer. So amid operating a hedge fund and preparing for his wedding last week, he persuaded other fund managers to join him in contributing seed money for a global information campaign.
He's not trying to raise money for his own group, Laifer told the press conference, saying that only governments are able to fund an effort of the size needed for such a "complicated catastrophe." Rather, he hopes charities around the world will take advantage of the campaign to organize their own fundraisers, as well as to mobilize their communities to hold world leaders accountable.
The malaria awareness campaign comes as public health and development professionals are gearing up to respond to the increasing toll of malaria in recent years. A 50th anniversary report on February 22 by Unicef Canada estimates that 3,000 children die daily from malaria, mostly in Africa - the equivalent of four jumbo jets full of children crashing every day.
"The fact that many of the same diseases that were killing young children in the 1950s are still killing millions of children every year is disgraceful," said Nigel Fisher, president and CEO of Unicef Canada. "The fundamental difference between now and five decades ago is that we have the knowledge and proven cost-effective technologies to prevent and treat these childhood threats - including pneumonia, diarrhoeal disease, malaria and measles - yet these are still the leading causes of preventable death for the world's children. With the advances of the past five decades, we could bring these diseases to their knees and break the back of the HIV/Aids pandemic - but we need greater political will and action."
Djibril Diallo agrees. "A lot of politicians have made promises - promises that have not been kept," he said. "It takes political will." He said civil society groups are key to keeping popular pressure on leaders to address the fundamental issues of eroding poverty outlined in the UN's Millennium Development Goals, including reducing the incidence of malaria.
Lance Laifer said the Dunk Malaria event, with its linking of basketball nets to the bednets, which can protect sleeping children from being bitten by mosquitoes that transmit malaria, is just the beginning for his hedge-fund effort. The group is rolling out a "Malaria Free Zones" campaign that delivers bednets and other interventions to representative communities around Africa, beginning with villages in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.
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He knows the effort is symbolic, that small hedge funds, or even large ones, can't save the world. But he also believes in the power of ideas and inspiration, and he plans to devote himself to insuring that Dunk Malaria is not just a flash in a basket.
To get involved with "Dunk Malaria", contact Hedge Funds vs Malaria
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