11.18.2002 ET

(CSRwire) Three new initiatives to combat malaria in Africa will share a grant of US$1.5 million as the beneficiaries of the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) African Malaria Partnership (AMP).

The GSK grants have been awarded following a review of proposals submitted by not-for-profit organisations and national malaria control programmes in malaria-affected African countries. The funding, which runs for three years, targets behavioural development programmes that will benefit whole communities and particularly target those most vulnerable to malaria – young children and pregnant women.

The three initiatives selected are:

* Malaria Dialogue Education in Credit With Education.

Freedom From Hunger, will drive a multi-country programme in Ghana, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Using their proven Credit With Education approach of linking education and learning with the provision of savings and credit facilities for very low income women, they will develop a malaria education curriculum that will reach 500,000 people over three years.

Freedom from Hunger's president, Christopher Dunford, Ph.D. said, "This grant is a real breakthrough for Freedom from Hunger. For years our partner organisations, especially in Africa, have been asking for a malaria education module. Now we have what we need to get on with the job. With funding from GSK, we have formed a multi-country partnership in five West African countries to fight one of the leading killers of children."

* Behaviour Promotion for Malaria Prevention and Treatment.

Plan Sudan and the National Malaria Administration of Sudan, through a behavioural development and advocacy programme, are aiming to reduce the prevalence of malaria from 35% to 20% by 2005 in 372 communities along the western bank of the White Nile River in White Nile State. The total population of the communities is in excess of 671,000.

Marie Staunton, Plan UK's Chief Executive, says, “Every year, 35,000 Sudanese people die of malaria, many of them children. GSK’s funding will enable Plan to support Sudan’s Roll Back Malaria programme to cut the rate of infection and death from malaria by half within eight years.”

* Uganda Malaria Partnership Programme.

Uganda’s National Malaria Control Programme together with AMREF Uganda as the lead implementer, proposed a community-based programme aimed at reducing mortality and morbidity from malaria in pregnant women and children under five in three of Uganda’s 56 districts. The programme will reach more than 780,000 people including around 163,000 under fives and also involves the Uganda Red Cross Society, Africare and the Communication for Development Foundation Uganda. Vincent Oketcho, Country Director, AMREF Uganda, says, "This award enhances partnership between the NGO sector and the government of Uganda in developing and implementing interventions to address priority health problems such as malaria, and provides a unique opportunity for a tripartite collaboration between NGOs, government and GSK."

"GSK is committed to playing a significant role in improving the health of under-served communities. We have a dedicated research facility for diseases of the developing world and we are the only company developing new treatments and vaccines for all three of the WHO priority diseases – HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. We also offer all of our antimalarial and antiretroviral medicines at not-for-profit, preferential prices in sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries," says Dr Richard South, director of GSK's HIV and malaria community partnership programmes. "But we also recognise that drugs and vaccines by themselves are not enough, whatever the price, which is why we developed the African Malaria Partnership.
Over the next three years, our partners will reach nearly two million people with the aim of improving their understanding of malaria and strengthening their responses both through preventive measures such as the use of insecticide-treated bednets and timely and appropriate treatment of young children and pregnant women.”

GlaxoSmithKline - one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies - is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For company information and further information on the African Malaria Partnership,visit GSK on the World Wide Web at www.gsk.com.

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