[afro-nets] Madness Against Malaria

["Philip Coticelli" <pcoticelli@gmail.com>]

Madness Against Malaria
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http://www.prleap.com/pr/46582/

News Released: August 31, 2006
Madness Against Malaria

(PRLEAP.COM) The World Swim for Malaria and Dunk Malaria are proud to announce the launch of Madness Against Malaria www.madnessagainstmalaria.com , a one of a kind bracketed charity tournament to raise money to buy bednets. March Madness provokes an annual frenzy among college basketball fans. Our goal in organizing this, first of its kind, annual malaria philanthropy competition is to generate a similar level of enthusiasm, interest and passion for saving lives. For the first time, basketball fans will be able to combine their competitive drive with a passion and compassion to fight the madness that is malaria and save the lives of the most anonymous and voiceless people of the earth - the malaria children.

Malaria is the world's single largest killer of children. Between one and three million people, most of whom are children under the age of five, die from malaria each year even though it is completely preventable. The number of children that will die today from malaria would fill 7 jumbo jets. The single most effective means of prevention is a US$5 mosquito net.

"The World Swim for Malaria is proud to be the operating partner of Madness Against Malaria and 100% of the money we raise will buy long lasting insecticidal mosquito nets," noted Rob Mather, Founder of the World Swim for Malaria and co-Founder of Madness Against Malaria. "This will hopefully be a significant step to protect children and their families where malaria is the biggest killer of children and a leading cause of death among mothers. We are proud to be leveraging our technological and distribution infrastructure to try and save as many lives as possible." Africa will be dominant recipient of nets as 90% of malaria deaths occur there but we hope as many as possible of the 80 or so countries affected by malaria will benefit also, including countries in Asia and Latin America.

Lance Laifer, Founder of Dunk Malaria and co-Founder of Madness Against Malaria, noted that
"Malaria needs to be attacked with the same vigilance, power and passion that we each bring to rooting for our favorite sport teams and trying to win our March Madness office pools. It was my dream to try and harness that energy. It was my belief that to do that we needed to build something fun, exciting and interesting. I am beyond grateful to Rob and all of the people at the World Swim for Malaria for making that dream and those beliefs a reality."

Madness Against Malaria is a fun, international online competition to identify the team that is best at raising funds to buy long-lasting insecticidal (mosquito) nets (LLINs) to help in the fight against malaria. The aim is to involve people all over the world. A team is any group willing to band together to raise funds. It could be a school, a group of friends, religious group, science class, volunteer group, company, work colleagues, sports club, family. Each team will try to get others to donate money to the cause at their team page. The aim will be to win the Malaria Cup by raising enough money to be the last team standing.

The "regular season" for the Madness Against Malaria Tournament will last from September 2006 until February 2007. Teams set up a sponsorship page online and raise money. Teams can start raising money whenever they like during this period. The top 64 teams by funds raised at the end of February go through to a week-to-week single elimination tournament over six weeks until one team is crowned as the champion. Throughout all phases of the tournament, 100% of funds raised will be used to buy long-lasting insecticidal nets and save lives.

March 1 - 11 - The Tournament begins. The top 64 teams are paired off and 'compete' knock-out style against each other. By March 12, 32 teams remain.

March 12 - 18 - The 32 teams compete against each other and 16 teams remain

March 19 - 25 - Sweet Sixteen single elimination round.

March 26 - April 1 - Elite Eight single elimination round.

April 2 - 8 - Final Four single elimination round.

April 9-15 - Championship Week - single elimination round, winner is announced


There might be some interesting pairings during the Tournament's single elimination phase. A large multi-national corporation might play against a school of 700 children in Saudi Arabia; a basketball team in Milwaukee against a Rotary club in Australia; a few people in the office of a multinational in Nairobi might be paired against a group of malaria researchers in Switzerland. Teams can be any number of people, from anywhere.

Strategy, timing and tactics will be important. Teams will need to be strategic in their fundraising because it is not a cumulative contest. Money raised does not carry over from the regular season to the elimination round and money raised in each week of the elimination round does not carry over to the next week. To win, a team will need to finish in the top 64 teams at the end of February, but then that team is paired against another team in the first round of the knock out phase and both start from $0. The team in each pairing raising the most money over the next week, progresses. Each team's total is then reset to $0 (again). For each of the other final elimination rounds the totals are, likewise, set back to zero.

Teams will need to be smart. If a team finishes at top of the pile at the end of February but is 'beaten' in the first knock out round, that team is out.

There is no limit to the number of people you can co-opt into your team at any time. Particularly during March, that may be important…

Will it be a school, a company, a foundation, or a ten year old child that manages to rally everyone in the world around her? Your guess is as good as ours.

To register your team and get started click here
http://www.madnessagainstmalaria.com

Lance Laifer +1-203-899-0657
email – mailto:vs.malaria@gmail.com