The fact that 100 per cent of the money we raise goes to fund bednets and that we can show where all the money goes has always been a fundamental part of what we do.  It is therefore nice when this specific aspect, rather than the actual fundraising events, gets recognised which is why we are grateful for this post today on the GiveWell blog.   Thanks.

On September 19 the movie “Igor” opens in cinemas across the United States.  This is an animated feature based on the exploits of a character who lives in the land of Malaria and features voice-overs from John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge, Sean Hayes, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon, and Christian Slater.  The producers of the movie, Exodus Film Group, and Malaria.com have asked us to help them raise money to fund bed nets, capitalising on the interest in malaria that the movie will generate - something we were happy to do in our role of empowering anyone with a fundraising idea to turn money raised into bed nets that are proven to end-up over people’s heads.

Here is a link to some more information - as well as a link to the movie’s site, Malaria.com and the fundrasing page we have set up.

Here are some examples of recent fundraisers. They range from people substituting nets for wedding and birthday presents, small corporate initiatives through to events designed to supply nets to specific desired locations, which we have been able to accommodate.

Zuzana and Sven’s wedding: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/weddingzuzanaandsven

Luke’s Birthday nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/LukeMonson

Worldwide chain of nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/bednetschain

People running up hills: http://www.againstmalaria.com/Fundraiser.aspx?FundRaiserID=4720

A group raising nets for Burkina Faso: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/SOSEnfantsBurkinaFaso

A company’s 75^th anniversary: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/SchwankAnniversary

Vets buying nets: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/Vets4Nets

As part of the drive to raise awareness of the wider Against Malaria campaign we have been lucky to be able to ’sponsor’ a J80 class boat which is competing in the J80 UK and World Championships. As with everything we do, we haven’t had to pay for this sponsorship, it has been given to us by one of our trustees, Jonathan Calascione – a keen yachtsman.

The UK national finals were held from 18 to 20 June off Plymouth and our boat, Against Malaria, skippered by Seb Ripard, came a very creditable fourth overall. For more information on the event see http://tinyurl.com/65xauf Against Malaria also came second in the Round the Island Race held around the Isle of Wight in the UK on 28 June. This is the largest race of its kind in the world and so a fantastic result. The World Championships are in Kiel from 7 to 13 July and we are getting a bigger logo for boat so we can make even more of an impact.

We will keep you updated on progress at the World Championships and also get more on the story of the boat from Seb.

Sub-saharan Africa tends to be the focus of activity against malaria. However, there are many other regions of the world at risk and where we also fund the distribution of nets as this new video from Nicaragua shows. This very well produced video (in Spanish) charts the distribution of 3,500 nets to an area made especially vulnerable by the damage wrought in September 2007 by Hurricane Felix.

Here are two of our younger participants, Nellie and Isabel from Hertfordshire in the UK, who competed in their own version of the triathlon and raised more than £1,500.
Here is the event in pictures.

Nellie (top left) and Isabel, warming up	Preparing the equipment
The running leg	The swim
The cycle	The sprint to the finish
Medal Ceremony

All in all, a great effort. Many thanks to Nellie, Isabel, their parents and all who supported them.

850 people recently tool part in an event, organised by Speedo in Malaysia. As you can see, in this report, the event had the added bonus of securing some great coverage from the media.

A few moments ago the total of funds we have raised passed the US$3million mark. This means 600,000 nets provided and, the most important statistic of all, 30,000 lives saved. We have also just recently passed another milestone involving 3 - over 300,000 people have now participated in Against Malaria initiatives. This is a fantastic achievement, but there is still a long way to go to make our next target - which is one million people having participated.

This Friday is World Malaria Day. There are going to be many activities taking place around the World to raise awareness about Malaria - check this page for more information. However, if you want do something we would recommend joining the One Million Faces Against Malaria - Project Blackout initiative http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4110666657

If you can get publicity for a swim, that is great, because it helps spread the word about fighting malaria. See this from the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association.  Also take a look at this and this from Alex and Tony Linossi.  If you want help and advice about publicising your event, please let us know.