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The vibrant American Idol veteran Melinda Doolittle sang a gorgeous rendition of Amazing Grace last night to a room full of benefactors at the Millennium Promise & Malaria No More annual benefit to raise money and awareness to end global poverty and malaria. The young singer has traveled with Malaria No More to Zambia to distribute life-saving bed nets and to raise awareness about the disease.
The crowd dined under what looked like the world’s largest bed net, where giant swaths of blue gauze decorated the ceiling of the Tent at Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park. The dinner honored four men who have been tireless in their work for these organizations: Raymond Chambers (Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Malaria), Peter Chernin (President and COO, News Corporation), Professor Jeffrey Sachs (Director, the Earth Institute at Columbia and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the UN) and George Soros (Chair, Soros Fund Management and Open Society).
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| Musicians against malaria John Legend and Melinda Doolittle. CGG |
Millennium Promise believes that for the first time in history, we can cut global poverty in half by working with impoverished communities, partner organizations, and local governments to address the major causes of global poverty in their millennium villages: from inadequate education and disease to lack of safe drinking water. And what separates them from other organizations is a deadline they have placed on this powerful goal: 2015, bringing what was once unforeseeable into a very tangible project.
Malaria No More has one mission: to end deaths from malaria. While we’ve known for a century how to beat this disease, it still takes over a million lives per year. Yet the solution is simple: cost-effective prevention tools and treatments.
Music icon John Legend presented the award to Professor Sachs. The musician is the founder of the Show Me Campaign, which raises awareness and money for Millennium Promise goals. He said that he first discovered Sachs’ work after watching him on the Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, where he was promoting his book, The End of Poverty. John was compelled by his words and by his energy.
“I read End of Poverty and I was so inspired by the vision that was laid out in the book,” he says, “the fact that if we decide that we want to do it, then we can really do it.” Legend says that he had been fairly submissive about the issue of extreme poverty, and was dismayed by the lack of success of efforts that had come before. “It seemed like they were futile because poverty still existed and there was still so much despair, so much suffering and so much sickness. But in this book, I could see the solution, what practically needs to be done, if we decide we want to do it.”
So Legend linked up with John McArthur and Jeffrey Sachs and visited villages in Ghana and began to tour college campuses across the country with Professor Sachs speaking on what everyone can do to help end poverty in the world.
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Millennium Promise CEO John McArthur. CGG
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Legend told the audience, “Jeffrey Sachs is someone who is helping to make change around the world, and I just pray that our next president will listen to him and take his advice as we move forward and try to make this place a better world to live in.”
We talked to Professor Sachs about how he first got involved. He told us that after visiting other countries, and seeing their needs, especially in Africa, he saw the need to fight poverty and disease. “If you keep your eyes open,” he says, “you’ll see things that need to be done.”
He’s also featured in Madonna’s new documentary I Am Because We Are. Madonna has partnered with Millennium to create a Millennium Village in Malawi. He says of working with her, “She’s got an incredible heart. Just a giant, giant heart. And she reaches so many people and in a very deep way. So it’s very exciting to work with her.” Millennium Villages are now in 80 villages across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Pals John Legend and Professor Jeffrey Sach. CGG
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While malaria and global poverty may seem like unwieldy problems for the average teenager, Professor Sachs has some very real, practical advice on how you can get involved. He says to start by learning the issues and learn what needs to be done. And like John Legend, he knows that this year’s election will be crucial in how our country tackles issues in the rest of the world. “Vote for candidates that are going to do the right thing because young people are the political leaders of this country right now. They’re the ones that are going to determine the elections,” he says.
"I’m counting on the next president of the United States being a leader for the millennium development goals. Those are the global objectives to fight poverty, hunger, and disease. And I want the young generation to lead that and I want the President of the United States to honor the commitments of this country."
And regardless of your age he advises making connections with African schools. Raising money at a dance or a bake sale is an easy way to raise money for bed nets to fight Malaria. “Mosquito nets are a great way to help because we want to make sure that by the end of 2010, every site in Africa, every sleeping site is protected by a bed net. Then we’re going to defeat this disease.”
“You know young people are organizing all over this country because they see that they can solve problems,” he says. “Social networking is very powerful. So Do Something.”
Find out more on how to get involved with Millennium Promise and Malaria No More.
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