UN Social Media Envoy to Raise Awareness for Malaria

Today, the Special Envoy for Malaria at the United Nations will be announcing a special Social Media Envoy group that will use the power of social media over the next year to raise awareness for malaria control in African countries.

The special envoy is made up of well-known figures from both the social web and broadcast media… Those that have joined the group have pledged to take one “social” action — such as a tweet or a Facebook (Facebook) post — every month for the next year starting from World Malaria Day on April 25, which last year saw Malaria No More also use Twitter for the cause.

The hope is that the tweets, posts and other social actions will inspire and motivate social media audiences in support of malaria control. The UN’s goal is to provide all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010, working towards the aim of near-zero deaths from malaria by 2015.

We’re very happy to see the UN enlist the power of social media in the fight against Malaria. The disease kills one million people each year with over 90% of the world’s malaria deaths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. Universal bed net coverage is the UN’s chosen prevention tool to fight the diseases; it has delivered over 192 million insecticidal mosquito nets since 2007, covering nearly 400 million people.

However, there is more money to be raised and more work to be done. We hope that the social media envoy will go even farther than their commitment to one social action per month, because Malaria is a battle where every little bit helps.
The 2010 Social Media Envoys

* Derrick Ashong, Musician, Social Activist & Oprah Radio host
* Veronica Belmont, Host of “Tekzilla” and “Qore” and Internet Personality
* Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey
* Sarah Brown, of MillionMums.org and wife of Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister
* Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable (Mashable)
* Anderson Cooper, CNN Anchor of “Anderson Cooper 360″
* Dennis Crowley, Co-founder of Foursquare (Foursquare)
* Anil Dash, Director of Expert Labs and Partner at Activate
* Justine Ezarik, “iJustine”, Internet Personality
* Jack Gray, CNN Producer/Writer for “Anderson Cooper 360″
* Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post; www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
* Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder of Alltop.com
* Larry King, CNN Host of “Larry King Live”
* Loic Le Meur, Founder and CEO of Seesmic (Seesmic)
* Alyssa Milano, Actress
* Dave Morin, Former Facebook executive- responsible for Facebook Connect and Platform
* Jeff Pulver, Founder of 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) and Co-founder of VoIP (Vonage)
* Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg (Digg)
* Chris Sacca, Founder of Lowercase Capital
* Ryan Seacrest, Founder, Ryan Seacrest Productions
* Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter (Twitter)
* Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco
* Jon Wheatley, Co-founder of DailyBooth.com
* Randi Zuckerberg, Director of Marketing, Facebook

You can show your support for the UN’s cause by following these “Social Media Envoys” and find out more about the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria at its dedicated site.

Mashable

Have an opinion or something inspiring to share? Click here to learn more about becoming a contributor!

Thanks for stopping by! “Like” us on Facebook and subscribe below to get more updates about the continent! At CP-Africa, we share ideas and report progressive African news, initiatives, updates and trends!