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By: Matthew Cordell

Students at Northwestern, DePaul, Loyola and University of Chicago rallied to raise more than $1,100 at The Chicago Buzz's Charity Beach Volleyball Tournament this past Saturday. The ball was in their court to act and they delivered an ace! The Chicago Buzz couldn't have imagined a better start to the year-long campaign to raise awareness about malaria prevention and donations for Nothing But Nets in the Chicagoland area. Around 11:00 AM about 55 students started to battle it out with their volleyball skills for the all-day tournament at North Avenue Beach against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline. During the lunch break, Dr. Kasturi Haldar from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine came and spoke about her malaria research and personal experiences with the disease. She stressed the importance of bed nets, especially in the absence of a vaccine and often ineffective anti-malarial drugs. It ended up being a beautiful day - in terms of the weather and what the students accomplished. The Chicago Buzz is an initiative of Amy Hamblin, one of this year’s twelve Buzz Cuts winners. Click here learn more about the Buzz Cuts competition. Stay tuned for more from The Chicago Buzz this fall!

September 13 2007

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported good news today on worldwide child mortality rates. As shown in the Times chart after the jump, the number of deaths of young children around the world has been cut in half since 1960, when these statistics were first recorded.

This fact is even more impressive considering: 1) world population has doubled since 1960, and 2) these stats are based on 2005 household surveys and do not adequately account for the recent uptick in funds from sources like the Global Fund, the Gates Foundation, and the Administration's AIDS and malaria programs.

UNICEF gives four reasons for the dramatic decrease (according to the Times).

  1. "Measles deaths have dropped 60 percent since 1999, thanks to vaccination drives" like those sponsored by the Measles Initiative.
  2. "More babies are sleeping under mosquito nets" because of campaigns like Nothing But Nets.
  3. "More women are breast-feeding rather than mixing formula or cereal with dirty water."
  4. "More are getting Vitamin A drops"

Click here to continue reading the original post on my blog, UN Dispatch

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