Blair urges faiths to unite for anti-malaria campaign

Tony Blair today launched an urgent 10 week campaign to fund 1,000,000 anti-malaria bed nets, calling for multi-faith action to show the good that faith can do in the world.

The purpose of the 'Faiths Act' campaign is to bring faiths together in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. Tony Blair announced ending deaths from malaria as one of the first goals his faith foundation would focus on at the launch in May. Now he has set 25th September as the deadline for the first phase of the campaign.

As many as three million people die of malaria each year, most of them pregnant women and children under five living in Sub-Saharan Africa. One child dies every 30 seconds. Their deaths are preventable.

Across much of Asia and the rest of the world, malaria continues to strike, and doesn't discriminate between religions.

In a video message on www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org, Tony Blair calls on "the 4 billion people of faith in the world to help do more to end the scourge of malaria.