Botswana Malaria anti- Malaria team hosted by the State President - Mr Festus G. Mogae

On 21st November, 2007 the State President Mr Festus Mogae of Botswana invited Tommie Hamaluba and his students who are involved in the fight against Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS to his office for the team to shed more light into what they are doing. This was a clear vindication of the great work toward the malaria education campaingn done in August, 2007 by the team which was joined by Bill Meyers from Colorado, USA. What a moment for the team to interact with his excellency for about 2 hours!

My hats off to the malaria foundation and Alexandar Dawson School through Bill Meyers for the great support they give us in this noble cause!

Remember, you too can save life and make a difference!

Malaria efforts acknowledged by the State President - Mr Festus Mogae

malaria and the digital divide

Dear Muhammad,

It will be nice for my students to learn from your students since, as you said, you live in a malaria endemic region. Let me tell you a little about my school and students. My students are 13 and 14 years old. We are a school with 420 students in a town about 40 Km from the city of Denver. We are in are very close to the rocky mountains and at an elevation of 1500 m. I teach Life Science and Earth Science at this school.

I understand your problem with internet connectivity. We have been working for several years with a school in Kenya that does not have internet or reliable electricity in their school. The teacher from that school will hopefully join our conversation. Where are the computers that you use? Do you have to pay for your internet time at a cafe? If so, how do you get the money to pay for this? Do your students have access to computers at a cafe?

I hope that we can find a way for our students to communicate through email and the blog.

All the best,
Bill

Muhammad Umar - introduction

Dear Bill Meyers

With reference to Dr. Mary mail, i am written to introduce myself to you and the members of SYAHD team which are now part of this global campaign to End Malaria using Blue Ribbon as a symbol which we hope will bring unity among the growing number of individuals and organizations working to fight Malaria.

However, SYAHD team members would work closely with you while continue to ensure that student have take part of this campaign. I was also among the Leaders forming the leaders of tomorrow (SLAM network), heading the campaign in my country Nigeria West Africa with SYAHD team members being actively participating into the campaign starting with in-school activities to identify student leaders.

Finally, we have not yet launch the campaign because we’re still waiting for the official Blue ribbons package to arrive any time from now, but in the absence of that our students made their own EM-BR home version and today 4th October, 2007 we have swing into action before launching our campaign in November / December, 2007 depending upon the time our package arrive.

Pictures of our 1st Blue ribbon End Malaria activity in northern Nigeria Africa would be forward to MFI for publication anytime from now. We thank you very much for your dedication while continue working with you and your students to ensure effective life saving and building a growing SLAM network.

Thank you very much, regards to your students who actively participate and share their views in ENO network.

Yours sincerely,

Muhammad Umar

Dear Muhammad Umar,

Thank you very much for writing. First let me ask you to please call me Bill as I consider us to be friends and colleagues in our work with students to fight malaria. It is wonderful to see what you are doing in your country. I hope to learn from you to see how my students can help. What will your students do during your campaign? I am not familiar with the EM-BR that you refer to. Will you please explain this?

Do your students have access to computers? It would be nice if our students could communicate with each other and share ideas. They could use the SLAM Blog and email.

What do you think about us putting this email on the Educational Network Blog ( http://mfiednet.blogspot.com/) so that others can share in our conversation?

I look forward to seeing your pictures on the MFI website and working with you and your students.

All the best,
Bill

Dear Bill,

Thank you so much for your mail. It’s exciting to be part of this global network working against malaria.

EM-BR means End Malaria Blue Ribbon, hope this answer your question.

Its also nice to hear about your work and thoughts of your dedicated students leaders in SLAM Blog, i think we can put this email on the Educational Network Blog, so that others can share in our conversation. This could also be an avenue for both leaders and students to share their views.

We would continue to learn from each others project, while you and your students would know the best way to help our student leaders because they are from malaria endemic region, this could be through sharing their ideas on malaria and other diseases.

Finally, during our 1st workshop we told the students about the global SLAM network, which they show their eagerness to share their ideas with other colleagues and get to know each other. Unfortunately for us as the technology advance, our schools are little bit left behind.

They lack ICT facilities as such access to internet is a little bit difficult for them. Lets together with you and MFI be looking for a way to improvise in order to have our Nigerian SLAM network laudable. (as i told Dr. Mary in my last email)

Great to hear from you and hope that we can work in partnership to end Malaria.

With best regards,



Muhammad Umar

Educational material for our new Student Leaders

Dear friends and supporters of the End Malaria Blue Ribbon Campaign,

I hope this cyberspace will facilitate sharing all the educational material that is being created as part of the End Malaria Blue Ribbon Campaign all over the world. My advice to you...be creative, think outside the box, try to look for things that will get children and teenagers excited about their future, about their community about their well being. Having a two-yr old son now, I can say that children are under-rated. They can give their best if you are able to get them interested in something worthwhile.

Greetings

Hi, my name is Riley, I am a student at the Alexander Dawson School in Lafayette, Colorado USA. I just set up this blog, and i hope you enjoy it.