Team Cameroon Cracks the Top 10

Malaria is the leading cause of death in Cameroon. Last year alone, seven out of ten people in the country contracted the disease. To help fight this emergency, a group of calling itself Team Cameroon has entered a team in the Madness Against Malaria fundraising tournament. www.madnessagainstmalaria.com

This is a team with a twist, though. One hundred percent of the funds raised on the team Cameroon page will be utilized to distribute bednets in Cameroon. The team's page www.MadnessAgainstMalaria.com/Cameroon

Highlights the teams involvement:
"Cameroon has LOTS of mosquitoes and NOT ENOUGH NETS! We were lucky to get 10,000 nets from the World Swim Malaria Foundation which will be distributed for free to children being vaccinated in the 2006 measles and malaria campaign. Now we wish to show that Cameroon and its friends can raise funds for nets to cover our kids during the 2007 measles and malaria campaign. Help us! DONATE! If you wish to join the founding members from the Cameroon Coalition Against Malaria and the Association Camerounaise pour le Marketing Social, send your name to Theresa at 'tgtapsoba@his.com'. And by all means, pass along the link to this page to those who might help!"

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. 100% of the money raised will buy long lasting insecticidal mosquito nets. Madness Against Malaria is an initiative of the World Swim For Malaria Foundation (WSMF), a charity registered in the UK, US, Australia and a number of other countries.
WSMF launched and ran World Swim For Malaria (WSM) on 3rd Dec 2005 in which more than 250,000 people swam and fund raised. 100% of the US$1.3m raised purchased 270,000 long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) which are now being distributed to protect 540,000 (mainly) children from biting insects when they sleep at night.

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