NetsforLife® Wins the Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award
May 27, 2010
NetsforLife® has received the Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award for outstanding Partnership and Collective Action. NetsforLife® and its partners will accept the award during the Global Business Coalition Awards Dinner that coincides with the Work Smarter Global Health Action 2010 annual conference in Washington, DC, on June 7-8.
Guest presenters will include Annie Lennox; Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services; and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, among other notable dignitaries and leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sector.
The Global Business Coalition was established in 2001, when Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, called for more business involvement in fighting AIDS. Today, the coalition’s 200-plus corporate members engage with a network of governmental and civil society partners to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
“The collaborative partnership NetsforLife® is a shining example of the possibilities that come from close collaboration between businesses, faith communities and NGOs. The merger of the humanitarian imperative with the business acumen of successful companies makes for strong and strategic programming resulting in effective, efficient and verifiable results,” said Shaun Walsh, Executive Director. “Diverse perspectives and strengths are necessary in the fight to eliminate malaria.”
“It is an honor to receive this prestigious award from the Global Business Coalition,” said Gavin Laws, Group Head of Corporate Affairs at Standard Chartered Bank. “The private sector bottom-line mentality, expertise in distribution and customer satisfaction, with corporate-style focus on rigorous monitoring and evaluation – all these add up to unparalleled impact on the ground in the fight against malaria.”
The program is a collaborative partnership of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, Starr International Foundation, the J.C. Flowers Foundation and Episcopal Relief & Development that implements integrated malaria prevention in 17 malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The success of this program is a result of NetsforLife®’s partnership with a network of Anglican churches and other faith-based organizations working on the ground in Africa. As active members of local communities, they have helped the program reach 5 million people through malaria messaging, the distribution of nearly 2 million nets and the training of over 14,000 malaria control agents.
NetsforLife® empowers communities by providing life-saving prevention training and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets at no cost to remote communities. The program’s methodology is to collaborate with national malaria programs to mobilize, train and educate volunteers in working together to eliminate the disease by instilling a 'net culture'—defined as the community-wide understanding of the protective value of nets and the right way to use and maintain them.
The program partnership’s next challenge will be to meet its goal of mobilizing 30,000 volunteers and distributing 7 million nets in sub-Saharan Africa by 2013.
For more information or to support the NetsforLife® program, please visit www.netsforlifeafrica.org. Donations can also be made over the phone by calling 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please put “NetsforLife/Malaria” in the memo line of all checks.
NetsforLife® is a partnership of corporations, foundations and faith-based organizations working to eliminate malaria in Africa. The program partnership, which has benefited more than 18 million people, includes ExxonMobil, Standard Chartered Bank, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Starr International Foundation, the J.C. Flowers Foundation and Episcopal Relief & Development.
Contact: Kellie McDaniel
(800) 334-7626, ext. 6359
