Football's fight against malaria
FOOTBALL AND MALARIA
By Kwesi Nyantakyi
President
Ghana Football Association
FOOTBALL is the most popular sport in the world. Through the medium of football, Africa shall become the focus of world attention during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa from 11th June to 11th July, 2010. For about a year now, football has offered itself as a credible platform and veritable vehicle in the worldwide United Against Malaria campaign.
The United Against Malaria (UAM) Campaign is a partnership of football teams, heroes, celebrities and health advocacy organizations, Governments, Corporate bodies and individuals who have united ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa to win the fight against malaria.
By partnering with football, the aim of the campaign is to create global awareness and review worldwide commitment to eliminating malaria through the use of prevention tools such as bed nets and malaria treatment in Africa.
The ultimate goal is to galvanise global support to achieve the United Nations target of universal access to mosquito nets and malaria medicine in Africa by 2010; a crucial step towards reaching the international target of reducing deaths to zero by 2015.
Malaria is the single largest killer of children under five in Africa. It kills a child every 30 seconds. 180 young Africans needlessly die within the time it takes to play a football match in 90 minutes.
Every year, close to 10% of the world's population is afflicted with malaria. It accounts for 40% of the public health budgets of endemic countries and costs Africa about USD12bn in GDP losses.
The UAM campaign enjoys the huge support of the major stakeholders. These include the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Comic Relief, UNICEF, WHO, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Malaria No More, One, PATH, Population Services International, the United Nations Foundation, Governments in Africa, Football Associations and Corporate Institutions.
The UAM has a formidable team in Ghana. It is made up of representatives from the Ministries of Health, Youth & Sports, Women & Children's Affairs, Tourism and Local Government, National Sports Council, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Ghana Football Association and other corporate bodies. The Ghana team is under the captaincy of yours truly with able supportive roles played by other key players.
The Ghana campaign is underpinned by disturbing statistics of malaria situation in the country. They include:-
• Over 3.4 million people in Ghana suffer from malaria every year. The incidence of Malaria is an all year round affliction, hence Ghana being described as a malaria endemic country.
• Currently about 4,000 deaths due to malaria are recorded yearly in Ghana, and 90% of annual childhood deaths are attributed to malaria.
• A single bout of malaria costs a sum equivalent of over 10 working days.
• Malaria is responsible for a 'growth penalty' of up to 1.3% per year in Ghana.
Against this background and the resolve to fight malaria, the Voices for a Malaria Free Future Ghana project in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program and the GFA held its first stakeholders meeting in Accra on 2nd September, 2009. All stakeholders including the Ghana Football Association signed up to the campaign. Other African Football Associations have also been engaged in the campaign. These include Mali, Ethiopia, Uganda and others.
On 15th November 2009, Ghana will host Mali in the final 2010 FIFIA World Cup qualifying match at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi. The match will be used to demonstrate our firm commitment to the fight against malaria. Leaflets and flyers containing messages on the fight against malaria will be distributed at the stadium.
There will be banners on the stands and mosquito nets hanged at strategic locations in the stadium. The Black Stars team will wear warm up T-Shirts branded with messages against malaria. The warm-up T-Shirts will be given out after the warm-up to spectators in the stands. The scoreboard will carry intermittent messages against malaria.