Live Blog From White House Summit on Malaria

Dec 14th, 2006 12:00 PM UTC
By Meighan Stone, ONE Communications Director

Right now, I’m sitting in with the White House press corps at an incredible event, The White House Summit on Malaria.

The room is full of all kinds of people – the President of Benin, a group of children from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa orphaned by HIV/AIDS who just finished singing, Melinda Gates, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Dr. Feachem, Pastor Rick Warren, a pastor from Kigali, Rwanda, members of Congress and countless activists, business leaders, people from faith communities and Africans with incredible stories.

What could bring them all together in one room?

They’re all here today because in Africa, a child dies every 30 seconds from a mosquito bite – malaria – a highly treatable and preventable disease.

President Bush and the First Lady just arrived. He’s about to speak about the President’s Malaria Initiative, a five year, $1.2 billion effort that’s already reached six million Africans with bednets, spraying and drug therapy. It’s a great start, and together with the Global Fund, we can do even more to help save lives in the world’s poorest countries.

We’re all waiting for President Bush to speak, so an African woman has just taken over the podium and started singing a song about the power of Africa to overcome – and she’s now on the mike challenging Wolfowitz and other Administration officials to come up and dance with her! A couple people up front just got up to start dancing.

It’s not your usual Washington DC event.

More to come…