PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘DUNK MALARIA’ INITIATIVE
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Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York |
PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘DUNK MALARIA’ INITIATIVE
The United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace today announced its partnership with the New York Knicks basketball franchise and the Hedge Funds vs. Malaria, in launching the “Dunk Malaria” initiative to be held at the Knicks-Atlanta Hawks game at Madison Square Garden on 15 March.
Djibril Diallo, Director of the Office of Sport for Development and Peace, said at a Headquarters press conference that the partnership was aimed at raising awareness and funds to deal with the tragedy of malaria. Fans at the 15 March Knicks-Hawks game will be invited to show their support for the global campaign against the deadly disease by dunking a ball into mini-basketball hoops that will be passed around the arena. More than 500 supporters of the cause will be in attendance, and there will also be literature and a sign-up table.
Mr. Diallo recalled that on 8 October last year, Secretary-General Kofi Annan had presided over a major “United against Malaria” concert marking the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations in Europe. He had emphasized that the concert was not a stand-alone event, but a movement embodied by the historic partnership to be launched between the United Nations, the New York Knicks and Hedge Funds vs. Malaria.
He said that malaria, which was endemic in many developing countries, attacked the poorest and most defenceless people. Illness and deaths from the disease had increased in the 1990s, particularly in Africa, but prevention and treatment measures had improved since then. Mosquito nets were among the most effective prevention tools to combat the disease. The United Nations and its partners would be distributing nets free of charge to people in need.
Introducing Knicks star John Starks and Lance Laifer, founder of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria, he said sport was a universal language, which, at its best, could bring people together regardless of their origins, backgrounds, religious beliefs or economic status. When young people participated in sports, or had access to physical education, they could experience real exhilaration as they learned the ideals of teamwork and tolerance. That was why the United Nations was turning increasingly to the world of sports for help with its work for peace and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
Mr. Starks, who is working for the Knicks on community relations and fan development, said the organization was excited about the partnership. Mr. Laifer said the fact that a completely preventable and eradicable disease was killing millions of defenceless children under the age of five annually was one of the biggest catastrophes that had happened to humankind throughout world history. The hedge fund community had raised “a couple of hundred thousand dollars” through a conference on 20 September for Free Africa from Malaria, which was rolling out malaria-free zones on the continent. The first zone had been created in Ghana last December, the second had just been designated in Nigeria, and a third would be rolled out in Kenya this month.
Asked whether the partnership had considered raising awareness of malaria in India, where it was endemic, Mr. Laifer said the Dunk Malaria initiative was being set up as a sort of “umbrella” for all malaria-related charities. The partnership was concentrating on Africa because that was where the problem was biggest.
In response to a question on whether the members of the Knicks and other athletes would consider travelling to Africa as goodwill ambassadors, to teach and popularize basketball in countries where the game was not so popular, Mr. Starks said the National Basketball Association (NBA) was doing a good job of putting together groups of players to promote the game in Africa.
He added that Philadelphia 76ers player (and former Knick) Dikembe Mutombo had set up a foundation to promote health and was building a hospital in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo. There was also a critical need for players travelling to Africa to distribute mosquito nets.
Asked what kind of support the initiative was getting from legendary soccer player Pelé and Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Mr. Diallo said Pelé would attend the 3 April presentation by Adolf Ogi, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, of his report on the International Year of Excellence in Sport and Physical Education. Among other athletes expected to be present were Switzerland’s top-ranked tennis player Roger Federer and New York City Marathon winner Tecla Lorupe of Kenya.
Another journalist asked how the Office of Sport for Development and Peace could establish links with such other sports as cricket, which was hugely popular in former African colonies, and soccer.
Mr. Diallo said that the cricket captains of India and Pakistan had been invited to New York to receive from the Secretary-General on 3 April their official appointment as spokespersons for Sport for Development and Peace. In January the Secretary-General had met International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge in Lausanne and International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) President Sepp Blatter in Zurich. He had later travelled to Davos, where sport had been included on the agenda of the World Economic Forum for the first time in its history. Those moves were part of a push that the Secretary-General was making to involve major sports in issues with which the United Nations was dealing.
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