ABUJA, NIGERIA (ANS) -- The Sultan of Sokoto and the Archbishop of Abuja, along with other leaders of Nigeria’s Muslim and Christian faiths, today (December 9, 2009) joined Nigerian government officials to launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate deaths from malaria throughout the country.

A news release said that by the end of 2010, the religious leaders plan to train 300,000 imams, priests, pastors, and ministers to carry the malaria prevention message to cities, towns, and rural villages through sermons and other cooperative efforts.

A press conferences was held today in Abuja, the capital city, to announce details of the project and attended by Babatunde Osotimehin, Nigerian Minister of Health; Ray Chambers, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria; Sultan of Sokoto; Archbishop of Abuja; Methodist Prelate of Nigeria; Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director.

They said that effort, called Faiths United for Health (FUH), is working in partnership with Nigerian leadership, as it aims to deliver 63 million Long Lasting Insecticidal Mosquito Nets (LLINs) to 30 million households by the end of 2010. Faiths United for Health will harness the unique influence of faith leaders in communities across the nation to amplify the message that LLINs save lives, with the goal of boosting utilization from approximately 10 percent to 80 percent.

Attending the launch was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, who applauded the historic effort: “Working together, Nigeria’s faith leaders have the credibility, influence, and reach to carry the message that ‘bed nets save lives’ to their nation’s most distant villages. Their efforts will help ensure that the next generation of Nigeria's children will have the strength and good health to pursue their hopes and dreams."

At the FUH launch, Nigeria’s top 100 faith leaders participated in prevention and education training. Each member of this core group of 100 will train a cadre of faith leaders, and each person who receives the training will, in turn, pass it along to his peers, until a network of up to 300,000 faith leaders has been mobilized to spread the life-saving message that Nigeria can defeat malaria through the consistent use of bed nets.

“Nigeria’s faith community is united to fight a disease that kills children of all religions,” said the Sultan of Sokoto and Archbishop Onaiyekan. “Our congregations and our brothers and sisters in faith are coming together in an unprecedented way to support the government’s health programs, and our participation is the key to success against malaria.”

FUH is an outgrowth of the One World Against Malaria (OWAM) campaign, which was launched by the UN Special Envoy and the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA) to foster greater cooperation within the faith sector and between faith organizations and other players in the fight against malaria, which kills 300,000 Nigerians every year. President Obama heralded the promising new interfaith model in a major address in Ghana earlier this year: “across Africa, we see examples of people tackling these problems. In Nigeria, an Interfaith effort of Christians and Muslims has set an example of cooperation to confront malaria.” US-UN Ambassador Susan Rice announced significant new U.S. funding commitments for malaria at OWAM’s launch in April.

Jean Duff, CIFA’s Executive Director, placed FUH in a larger context, saying, “The significance of Faiths United for Health goes well beyond better health and development in Nigeria. It showcases Nigeria's interfaith action as a model for Muslim-Christian collaboration in the global fight against poverty and disease.”

Background on Malaria in Nigeria: Statistics and Entities

There are an estimated 57 million cases of malaria in Nigeria each year, resulting in nearly 300,000 deaths – 85 percent of them children under the age of five. Because of the disease, Nigeria’s economy suffers a direct loss of an estimated GBP530 million, roughly US$12 billion a year.

* NIFAA, founded in 2009 with support from the Nigerian government and the World Bank, as well as technical assistance from CIFA, works with faith leaders to implement key health behavior change components, including rethinking cultural and gender norms that may adversely affect the well-being of families affected by malaria.

* NMCP – The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health is the lead governmental agency responsible for Nigeria’s fight against malaria. The NMCP plays a central role in coordinating and harmonizing the activities and resources of the Nigerian government’s international and domestic partners working on the issue of malaria.

* CIFA – The mission of The Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA) is to improve the capacity and effectiveness of the faith community in its collective effort to reduce global poverty and disease. CIFA does this through increased interfaith coordination, best practices and model sharing, innovative mobilization of resources and influential advocacy to governments and the general public. (www.cifa.org)

Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.