Actor Ashton Kutcher has pledged to donate 100,000 dollars he won in a bet with television network CNN to help fight the spread of malaria, the UN Children's Fund said Friday.
Kutcher, who is a vocal advocate for the eradication of malaria, won the money from CNN after the actor laid down a challenge to the global network several weeks ago, saying that his Twitter social networking account would have a million followers before the account held by CNNs breaking-news feed.
A week ago Friday, Kutcher -- Twitter name @aplusk -- reached the one million mark.
The CNN feed wasn't far behind, with 998,239 Twitter followers at the time. UNICEF partner, Malaria No More, has agreed to match Kutcher's 100,000 dollar gift, meaning a total of 200,000 dollars will be available to buy and deliver more than 26,000 bed-nets.
Insecticide-treated nets are one of the most effective ways of stemming the spread of malaria, a mosquito-born disease which kills 3,000 children in Africa daily.
UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman will join US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, jazz great Quincy Jones, African and US faith leaders, and malaria experts at a meeting in Washington on Friday to launch a UN report on malaria and a new campaign to fight the illness.
The One World Against Malaria Campaign will tap local communities' trust of faith leaders, educate people on how to prevent malaria, and ramp up mosquito net distribution.
Data presented in the report titled, Malaria and Children, Progress in Intervention Coverage, show that huge strides have been made in fighting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region of the world.
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AFP 241223 GMT 04 09
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