Sizwe Sibiya
Five athletes and celebrities from across the African continent have teamed up with the English football icon David Beckham to combat the global spread of malaria on Africa Day.
As part of a large scale social media campaign for Zero Malaria, the six stars launched their second film for the campaign on Africa Day, 25 May.
The Zero Malaria campaign is a project of the United Nations through a global non-profit organisation called the BM Partnership to End Malaria.
The five stars include South African media personality Bonang Matheba who spreads the message in a news anchor format on the video, while Nigerian Afropop star Yemi Alade echoes her words through dance and song.
In the three-minute film Beckham – renowned for his football skills over his science experiments – plays the scientist who is conducting malaria research. Meanwhile Kenyans Faith Kipyegon and Eliud Kipchoge, Tokyo Olympic gold medalists, run to all corners of the continent, spreading the fight against malaria.
And the 33-year-old FC Barcelona striker from Gabon, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, dribbles his way against the mosquito-borne disease.
“Every minute a child dies from malaria,” reads the text at the end of the video, which is available for viewing on YouTube and the Zero Malaria campaign’s website.
“Malaria, we’ve got new moves. Get involved this #AfricaDay to turn the pressure up on world leaders so they commit to reaching #ZeroMalaria in a generation. Let’s #DrawTheLine with these champions,” reads the caption on the campaign’s Twitter post of the short film.
“Honoured to be part of this campaign!” said Bonang, retweeting the post on her account of over five million followers on Twitter.
