Global partnership to help prevent malaria deaths

United Methodist News Service
United Methodist Bishop Janice Huie joined Ted Turner at the United Nations April 1 as he announced an expanded global partnership to help end malaria deaths.
The hope is that the partnership, led by the people of The United Methodist Church and Lutheran World Relief and organized by the United Nations Foundation, will raise $200 million to fight malaria in Africa. Development of the partnership has received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
United Methodists already have worked with the United Nations Foundation—founded by Turner, a businessman and philanthropist, a decade ago—and other partners on the Nothing But Nets campaign to purchase and distribute insecticide-treated bed nets for Africa as a malaria prevention tool. The campaign had raised more than $18 million by the end of 2007, its first year.
Huie, who is president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops, told United Methodist News Service that she expects the denomination will “accept Mr. Turner’s challenge” and become engaged in the effort, “which we see as an entry point into the diseases of poverty.”
She stressed that the General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body, will make the ultimate decision about the partnership. The 2008 General Conference will meet April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth.
Transmitted by mosquitoes, malaria infects more than 500 million people a year and kills more than a million. In Africa, it is the leading killer of children.
Through the new global partnership, United Methodists and constituents of Lutheran World Relief—which include members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod—would be educated about malaria and poverty-related diseases and mobilized for action; support efforts to prevent malaria and strengthen health systems; and provide financial support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It also would help advance the churches’ on-the-ground health missions.
Huie said a grant from the Gates Foundation allowed the church to conduct a feasibility study “that indicates the UMC has the capacity to raise $100 million (for malaria).”
The global partnership would move the denomination into an arena “where we hope to be able to leverage the resources and commitment of United Methodists around the world,” she said.