Today is World Malaria Day. It seemed appropriate to share this interview I had with Adi Galokopoto, health worker with UNICEF Pacific Islands and member of the Solomon Islands Emergency Response team. Here Adi talks frankly about living with malaria, putting into context the nature of the disease, effective treatment, and how together we can help eradicate it. Please buy a net today via the UNDERCOVER widget on my blog (below). Funds go direct to UNICEF to buy nets. This simple action will save at least four children’s lives.

Some Facts About Malaria…

Malaria is a deadly mosquito-born disease, which takes almost one million lives each year and afflicts as many as half a billion people in 109 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Malaria plagued Europe and North America as recently as 60 years ago. Simple public health measures were crucial to eliminating the disease and helping those regions achieve growth, prosperity and stability.

Today, for the first time in 50 years, the international community is poised to win the fight against malaria worldwide.

Effective, low-cost tools exist to prevent and treat the disease and new and improved tools are currently being developed and tested. A consensus global action plan has been put forth to guide a coordinated international effort to control, eliminate and eventually eradicate malaria. A robust Partnership, uniting all key actors and stakeholders in malaria control, is in place to respond to challenges that no organization or government can face alone.

The next year presents a rare window of opportunity to save a million lives by rapidly delivering malaria interventions – protective nets, diagnostic tests, antimalarial drugs and indoors spraying – to all people at risk of the disease and to pave the way towards virtually ending deaths by 2015.

Each 30 seconds, a child dies from malaria. Each of these deaths is avoidable. Join the world’s largest international effort to end malaria deaths. The countdown to 2010 continues.

This week I was a guest on 87.8 Kiss FM ‘The Morning After Brekky Show’ – Australia’s DJ elite playing the latest in contemporary music culture. It was awesome… so awesome in fact that despite being 8am in the morning and my body saying, ‘Stephen it’s waaaaaay too early to be having this much fun!’ – I was in there mixing it up with the infamous Al Black and co-host Ben Acott!

Amidst wicked beats and ‘Out There Al’s’ borderline certifiable news flash – I was invited onto the show to talk about UNDER COVER – an online groundswell movement which raises awareness of the global malaria endemic and funds for purchase and distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Here’s a few pics of my time in the studio and the audio stream split into two parts…

Kiss FM ‘Morning After Brekky Show’ Interview Part 1
Kiss FM ‘Morning After Brekky Show’ Interview Part 2

With more than one million preventable child deaths occuring each year, UNDER COVER takes a lateral approach to traditional fundraising by leveraging trusted networks of friends in online social networks. The movement supports the United Nations agenda to distribute 25 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets to malaria endemic countries by the end of 2010. UNDER COVER has one goal – to provide a malaria net to every child who needs one. Find out how to get involved.

And some video too if you’r interested

Kiss FM ‘The Morning After Brekky Show’ 1 from stephen johnson on Vimeo.

Since my trip to the Solomon Islands earlier this year I’ve been developing a social media strategy with UNICEF’s malaria task force. The realisation of this collaboration is the UNDER COVER Movement – an online groundswell project supporting the UNITED NATIONS international target to distribute 25 million nets to malaria endemic countries by end 2010.

UNDER COVER takes a different approach to traditional fundraising in that anyone with an Internet connection can make a difference, by direct donation or by getting a net fundraising widget for their blog or social network profile. Over the coming weeks we’ll be inviting people to get involved in this awesome initiative. Our target is 35,000 nets which will see 140,000 children protected from malaria.

To put some scale around a very complex problem, malaria (a preventable disease) is endemic in 91 countries and infects between 350-500 million people each year. More than one million people die (a person every 30 seconds) and most are young children living in Africa. Insecticide treated nets are a cheap solution and save lives by protecting children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. By going UNDER COVER you become part of a life-saving solution.

One of the highlights of my Solomon Islands experience was Iringila – a 2000+ village community on Vella la Vella Island in the Western Province. Iringila is a remote paradise situated approximately three hours (by boat) from Gizo Island. Here I met with UNICEF Health & Nutrition Officer Winston Pitakomoki, who shared with me several malaria prevention strategies including the new insecticide treated bed nets.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

The UNDER COVER widget can be installed onto any website or social network profile which accepts cut-paste HTML. Get your widget code here and instructions for installation, then if you’re interested in pimping avatars and social profile pics download a .zip archive containing UNDER COVER skins.

We’re also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr so please subscribe to these profiles and get involved in the conversation.

On the 2nd of April 2007, the men of Titiana, a coastal community on Gizo Island in the Solomon Islands Western Province, woke and set off in their canoes for an early catch. Upon their return a few hours later they approached their village, just as they had done almost every day of their lives. Within a few hundred metres of the shore, bemused at not seeing their village they returned to the open sea to correct their mistake. This they repeated several times until finally they realised that in fact they were not mistaken. They came ashore to the sight of utter destruction. Almost every structure had disappeared into the sea; nine people had been killed, including three young children from the same family. The survivors, terrified, had fled deep into the bush fearful that the men who had gone fishing would not come back.

It’s been just over a week since I arrived home from the Solomon Islands where I traveled with UNICEF ambassadors to see community rehabilitation projects which have been active since the 2007 earthquake tsunami. Many people don’t realize that the earthquake and tsunami that hit Western and Choisel Provinces in the Solomon Islands two years ago killed 53, directly affected 36,000, damaging or completely destroying 6000 sleeping shelters, 60 schools and 50 health clinics. To compound this utter destruction food security was undermined either by those fleeing to the higher ground of their gardens, or by landslides triggered by the 8.1 quake. On the island of Ranongga, 40 x 15km in size, the earthquake was so violent the island has been lifted permanently by three metres, exposing the fringe reef above the high water mark and making access to the sea incredibly difficult.

Please donate to UNICEF’s work in the Solomon Islands and share this story with your friends.

Emergency Architects (EAA) has been present in the Solomon’s since the disaster. Initially providing support to the National Disaster Management Organisation, UNDP and other NGO’s. EAA works very closely with UNICEF’s Rehabilitation Action Reconstruction Project (RARP) providing additional technical capacity (and supporting communities within the UNICEF agenda in the Solomon Islands). Following the tsunami EAA quickly moved to providing in-the- field technical support, on shelter, to communities on Simbo, Ranongga, and in the shortlands. This comprised training workshops in villages, focused toward construction of earthquake resistant houses, repair of damaged and leaning houses, training over 300 village carpenters, but more importantly, empowering communities to rebuild their lives.

Organisations such as UNICEF and Emergency Architects Australia are making a real difference in the Solomon’s. Even the smallest donation helps to fund this effort, which is largely focused toward rebuilding essential shelter, schools and medical facilities to village communities worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami. You can support this effort in a number of ways. Firstly, please tell everyone about it. Secondly, if you can then please donate to UNICEF’s ‘Build Back Better’ program. Your support will assist to rebuild lives, especially those of young children and their families. During this coming week I look forward to sharing with you more of my experience in the Solomon Islands. In the meantime, please take the time to connect and join in the conversation.

Special thanks to David Kaunitz and Will Harvey-Jones – Emergency Architects Australia; Samantha Cooper – UNICEF Pacific; and Tarie Benedetti of the Titiana Community. Photo and video credit: Joseph Hing – UNICEF Pacific; David Kaunitz EEA; and Stephen Johnson

Yesterday I arrived in Honiara, the capital of Quadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This remote destination in the Pacific has a fascinating history with over 990 islands that form the Solomon’s archipelago. Sounds like a dream doesn’t it? It is kind of.

A myriad of ship wrecks lie dormant along the coast, only metres from the beach and dating back to World War II conflict between Japan and Alliance forces. I’d heard about this before I arrived as the Solomon’s are a renowned divers paradise, however nothing quite prepares you for the surreal sense and awe they create.

I am in the Solomon Islands on behalf of UNICEF New Zealand, who invited me to travel here with a small group of United Nations ambassadors to see emergency relief aid and community development projects here. Many of these inspiring projects are part of UNICEF’s ‘Build Back Better’ scheme, implemented following the 2007 earthquake tsunami which devastated many islands in the Pacific, including the Solomon’s. I’d heard about the tsunami and seen its effects via mainstream news at the time it happened, but like many of us living in urban cities I remained emotionally detached from the reality of life here.

With no ability to comprehend the scale of the disaster or effort involved to rebuild peoples lives and communities in the wake of such an event, we just go back to ‘life as usual’ after a few months. I’m not saying this to make anyone feel bad, it’s just how it is, but I’ll be providing coverage of UNICEF’s work here on my blog in the hope of connecting you to what’s really happening.

I’m also here to scope how we can use social media to create awareness and help with the rebuilding process. Whilst connectivity may be a problem over the next few days given some of the remote places I’ll be travelling to, I’ll attempt to publish a daily account of the trip so please share this with all of your friends and stop by each day for updates. And for all my foodie friends, the picture below is what I had for dinner

I’d like to introduce you to a fabulous movement called Thankyou Water. I first heard about this inspiring cause via my partner Nanette who profiled them recently on her blog Gourmet Worrier.

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to meet founders Daniel Flynn, Jarryd Burns and Morgan Ranieri. We talked about the impetus behind Thankyou Water and ways social media can be leveraged to support communities affected by the world water crisis. It was an inspiring discussion and one which opened my eyes to the challenges as well as the opportunities.

Thankyou Water are making a real difference with 100% of profits from their bottled water sales directed to the development of wells and water sanitisation projects in Uganda. I’ll be profiling them regularly on ArcaneLogik and wanted to share this video of our meeting as it provides insight into their movement and ways you can be involved. If you’re interested in donating to Thankyou Water or learning more about their cause you can connect with them via Facebook.