The New York Knicks join our fight against malaria - Earth's largest killer of children and expectant mothers.
On March 15, during the Knicks-Hawks game, the Knicks will help us kick off the global dunk malaria event by attempting to get every fan in the Garden to take a shot through a mini-basketball hoop. The netting of the hoop symbolizes the bednetting that is essential to the fight against malaria spreading mosquitoes. Hopefully you can join us at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, as we attempt to publicize planet earth's worst marketed disease - malaria. To reserve tickets and/or place an ad in our Hedge Funds vs. Malaria Journal please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - tickets cost $60 each.  We also have a form you can mail or fax for your Journal ad.  You can read the press release here .

Highlights will include:

• The "Micro-Wave" - Immediately before the game begins a special guest star will shoot a small basketball through a mini basketball hoop. After taking this shot the guest star will pass the small hoop and ball to the person sitting next to her (or him). That person will take a shot and pass the hoop to the person next to him (or her). That person will take a shot and pass the small hoop and ball to the person next to her (or him). This person-by-person wave will continue throughout the Garden until all fans in attendance have had the opportunity to shoot.

• Fab 5 Freddy will take the first shot!
  

• Launching Dunk Malaria -The Knicks-Hawks game will commence the official start of Dunk Malaria - a global event (culminating in the Dunk Malaria malariathon on March 19) encouraging everyone, everywhere to shoot a shot to raise malaria awareness and funding.
• Making available a location for fans to sign the Kill Malaria Mosquitoes Now Declaration. This declaration encourages more and better government funding against malaria and the mosquitoes that spread malaria. The declaration has been signed by thousands of concerned citizens including two Nobel Peace Prize winners (Archbishop Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk) and hundreds of malaria professionals. click here for a copy of the declaration
  
• Distribution of the Hedge funds vs. Malaria Journal - We will be distributing the journal to all fans who buy tickets through our group and to members of the press who are in attendance. Full page ads in the journal are available for a minimum of $250. Ads in the journal will be placed in order by the amount of contribution. The journal will include a copy of the Kill Malaria Mosquitoes Now Declaration.
• Formalizing our support of Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) - Proceeds from the sale of ad pages and the sale of tickets to the game will go to AFM whose current work is to encourage all major funding agencies, The World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, UNICEF, to change their funding allocations. Currently approximately $400m is allocated to malaria (for some perspective the world's major funding agencies recently pledged $6 billion to help with Pakistani Earthquake relief) but in many instances the best interventions are still not funded. AFM has already gained some considerable successes in challenging USAID and other donor agencies on their anti-malaria policies.  Over the last year, AFM has found several key allies within Congress and its Directors have testified six times to Congressional committees. The result is that USAID will switch allocations of its 2006 $130m malaria budget, so that approximately 40% of its budget will be spent on life-saving interventions (up from 7% in 2004 - this is not a typo -  In 2004 the US government spent approximately $75 million fighting malaria - all of that money except for $6 million - was spent on expenses other than direct life-saving interventions) .  AFM has been instrumental in building this momentum for change. AFM is a founding partner of the Kill Malarial Mosquitoes Now (KMMN) campaign, which was launched in October 2005. AFM's web site is www.fightingmalaria.org and more details of these programs can be requested from its Directors Roger Bate This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (202-431-5635) and Richard Tren This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (202-420-1837)