The Malaria Foundation takes the lead during week 2 of Madness Against Malaria

The organizers of the Madness Against Malaria Charity Tournament www.madnessagainstmalaria.com congratulate The Malaria Foundation International for leading the tournament at the end of the second week of action.

Malaria kills at least 3,000 people each day, mostly children. People everywhere and from many professions are starting to take a stand and stress that this is ethically unacceptable. The daily devastation of our children, one child passing every 30 seconds, must be stopped. Pregnant women living in malarious regions of the world are also particularly vulnerable, with deleterious outcomes including severe anemia, low birth weight babies, stillbirths, or maternal death. Each year, at least 500 million people become clinically sick, with death being a possible outcome, despite the fact that malaria is a preventable and treatable disease. Almost half of humanity lives at risk of succumbing to malaria, caused by the bite of an infected Anopheline mosquito.

Dr. Mary Galinski, Founder and President of the Malaria Foundation International and a Professor at Emory University’s School of Medicine in Atlanta GA said, “This is a terribly complex and widespread disease, persistent in about 100 countries, yet we know how to bring it into control, and we have increasingly advanced knowledge with malaria genome information now available that makes the prospects of developing new malaria drugs and eventual vaccines promising." She added, "We are developing a team and are looking forward to particiapting in this novel philanthropic tournament because we see malaria as a solvable problem, which must be approached from many angles, with new insights from creative, dedicated and persistent individuals”.

Lance Laifer, co-Founder of Madness Against Malaria, emphasized the importance of the Malaria Foundation's participation in Madness Against Malaria. "The Malaria Foundation International is one of the most important leaders in the world in the fight against malaria and I am thankful to the Foundation for forming one of the first teams in the tournament and for aggressively pursuing the tournament championship", said Mr. Laifer.

To help the Malaria Foundation fight malaria visit the Malaria Foundation team page at www.MadnessAgainstMalaria.com/mfi


About Madness Against Malaria

Madness Against Malaria is a fun, international online competition to identify the team that is best at raising funds to buy long-lasting insecticidal (mosquito) nets (LLINs) to help in the fight against malaria. The aim is to involve people all over the world. A team is any group willing to band together to raise funds. It could be a school, a group of friends, religious group, science class, volunteer group, company, work colleagues, sports club, family. Each team will try to get others to donate money to the cause at their team page. The aim will be to win the Malaria Cup by raising enough money to be the last team standing.

The "regular season" for the Madness Against Malaria Tournament will last from September 2006 until February 2007. Teams set up a sponsorship page online and raise money. Teams can start raising money whenever they like during this period. The top 64 teams by funds raised at the end of February go through to a week-to-week single elimination tournament over six weeks until one team is crowned as the champion. Throughout all phases of the tournament, 100% of funds raised will be used to buy long-lasting insecticidal nets and save lives.

March 1 - 11 - The Tournament begins. The top 64 teams are paired off
and ‘compete’ knock-out style against each other. By March 12, 32
teams remain.

March 12 - 18 - The 32 teams compete against each other and 16 teams remain

March 19 - 25 - Sweet Sixteen single elimination round.

March 26 - April 1 - Elite Eight single elimination round.

April 2 - 8 - Final Four single elimination round.

April 9-15 - Championship Week - single elimination round, winner is announced


There might be some interesting pairings during the Tournament’s single elimination phase. A large multi-national corporation might play against a school of 700 children in Saudi Arabia; a basketball team in Milwaukee against a Rotary club in Australia; a few people in the office of a multinational in Nairobi might be paired against a group of malaria researchers in Switzerland. Teams can be any number of people, from anywhere.

Strategy, timing and tactics will be important. Teams will need to be strategic in their fundraising because it is not a cumulative contest. Money raised does not carry over from the regular season to the elimination round and money raised in each week of the elimination round does not carry over to the next week. To win, a team will need to
finish in the top 64 teams at the end of February, but then that team is paired against another team in the first round of the knock out phase and both start from $0. The team in each pairing raising the most money over the next week, progresses. Each team’s total is then reset to $0 (again). For each of the other final elimination rounds the totals are, likewise, set back to zero.

Teams will need to be smart. If a team finishes at top of the pile at the end of February but is ‘beaten’ in the first knock out round, that team is out.

There is no limit to the number of people you can co-opt into your team at any time. Particularly during March, that may be important…

Will it be a school, a company, a foundation, or a ten year old child that manages to rally everyone in the world around her? Your guess is as good as ours.

To register your team and get started click here www.madnessagainstmalaria.com

Contact: Lance Laifer 203-899-0657
email - vs.malaria@gmail.com