The Malaria No More International Honors 2014 brought together people from different works of life for a great cause; eradicating malaria, which is the number one deadliest disease in Africa.
The night started off with a cocktail reception, which took place in the very gorgeously decorated lobby of the Skylight Modern in New York City. As different appetizers and drinks were served, people networked and discussed their anticipation for the event. There were also two beautifully African inspired photo booths. One as what looked like an African barber shop in the olden days, and the other was a space filled with African drums, leaves, and African head attires as props and Ankara material as the background. As expected, guests took advantage of the photo booth opportunities while waiting for the formal event to commence. At around 7:45pm, we were instructed to start heading to the space where the formal event took place.
Slowly, guests made their way to the breathtaking space. It was very cozy, lights were slightly deemed and the decor was opulent. On arrival at our different tables, we were greeted by the servers and started snacking on ancient grains, which included quinoa, yuca chips, and barley amongst other ingredients. As we waited for the event to begin, a musician playing a lute took the stage to entertain guests while we settled in. Shortly after, the band and dancers of the Tony award-winning Broadway show, FELA! made their way to the stage to perform a few of Fela Kuti’s hits in which after, we were prompted to take a seat.
After they performed, the CEO of Malaria No More, Martin Edlund took the stage and enlightened us more about the organization, what they do and the disease, malaria. He started by thanking the sponsors of the event, which included HBO, Walt Disney, Fox, amongst others. He went ahead and talked about a polling company that took a survey asking people what they thought was the deadliest animal in the world, the polling company results were different from reality, he emphasized. The polling results showed snake as the answer but truly; the mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world, he said. He went on to talk about his visit to Nigeria and the great work the organization has done there amongst other countries in Africa including Cameroon, Zambia, etc for the cure of number one disease responsible for many deaths in Africa, malaria.
He also talked about a specific member of their team, Olivia who is Cameroonian and lost a close relative due to the disease, he shared her story and her thoughts with us, “we are working hard, we are making progress but there’s something more we can do.”
Dr. Linus Igwemezie, Head of the Malaria Initiative of Novaritis, a leading health care company in the world gave a keynote speech about what the company is doing to eradicate malaria in Africa. “We achieved a milestone this month, which is the delivery of 700 million doses of anti-malaria drugs, Coartem mostly to sub-Saharan Africa at no profit to the company.”
Alere received the Corporate Citizenship Award for revolutionizing the way we find and fight malaria by adding a new tool—the rapid diagnostic test—to the world’s arsenal of malaria resources, and for developing the next generation of diagnostics to help us eradicate malaria once and for all. CEO Namal Nawana received the award and mentioned the rapid diagnostic test which is available at low cost will be giving another 2 million test to Zambia, Nigeria and Chad.
Martin Edlund presented the Media Leader award to Ehab Al Shihabi, the CEO of Al Jazeera America for their outstanding journalism and commitment to covering the most pressing global health issues. “Malaria is the number one deadliest disease in Africa, at Al Jazeera, we are happy to do our part though we know there’s still much more to be done.”
Additionally, Bez a Nigerian soul artist performed a few of his songs including his hit, the stupid song. Guests danced the night away and it was truly a great time for a very important cause. Broadway actress and dancer Daphne Rubin-Vega, actor Eric West, actor Pasha Pellosie and actress Tashiana Washington were in attendance.
