Tens of thousands of fans turned up for the first of two “Africa Live” concerts staged in Dakar, Senegal, this past weekend, featuring major African music stars aimed at raising awareness in the fight against malaria, the World Bank press review reports Moinday.
“Africa Live” was organized by Senegalese star Youssou Ndour as part of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership launched in 1998 by the WHO, the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank.
The musicians took it in turns to appeal for mobilization against the scourge, which kills one African child every 30 seconds and affects some 600 million people around the world, according to the WHO.
Fans filled the stands of the Iba Mar Diop stadium, which holds 40.000 people, on Saturday as the Orchestra Baobab of Senegal exhorted them to chant “Down with Malaria” while other groups dedicated songs to “those who have lost someone” in the epidemic.
Performing artists included Africas Rwandan genocide survivor Corneille and Tinariwen from the sand swept town of Kidal in northeast Mali, a group of former Tuareg rebels who swapped their guns for electric guitars and mix traditional poetry with the rhythmic pulse of desert blues. Other artists appearing include Malis Salif Keita and Cameroons Manu Dibango.
Information booths were set up at the stadium explaining how malaria is transmitted and how to use mosquito nets sprayed with insecticide to avoid infection. A fan named Naajwat from the Comoros said: – We have already caught malaria, but the medicines are too expensive. To have good health in Africa you have to have money. So we have to mobilize against unhealthy practices and distribute mosquito nets to everybody.
Transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito, malaria kills around 3.000 children every day in Africa, or a total of more than one million people a year, most of them under 5. It affects nearly twice as many people on the continent as tuberculosis, AIDS, measles and leprosy combined.
Prevention is relatively simple: officials printed leaflets encouraging people to sleep under insecticide-treated mosquito nets and go straight to the doctor if they get fever, one of malarias initial symptoms.
The concert in Dakars Iba Mar Diop stadium will be made into a television documentary to be broadcast around Europe and Africa, a radio series, DVD and compact disc.
With tickets priced at just two US dollar (ca. 11 DKR), “Africa Live” does not aim to raise a huge amount of money itself for the fight against malaria, but NDour said the event would help raise awareness and encourage donors to provide 10 million mosquito nets for Africa in the next two years.
The majority of African families cannot afford a mosquito net, which costs on average between 2 and 5 US dollar, and fewer than 5 percent of African children sleep under a net.
Organizers also say the artists involved will become advocates for the fight against malaria in their home countries, recording public service announcements in local languages and allowing their images to be used in campaigns.
– We have made great strides on eradicating polio. Now it is time to turn to malaria. It perpetuates poverty. It is like a tsunami that takes place in Africa every month, said Kathy Baldwin of the United Nations Foundation, which helped arrange the concert.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
