Luol Deng is joined by Bulls' EVP-Business Operations Steve Schanwald, Elizabeth McKee, Dir. of Nothing But Nets, and Kathy Bushkin Calvin, EVP/COO, United Nations Foundation.
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Deng hosts Nothing But Nets event at the UC
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Bulls in the Community | CharitaBulls
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July 16, 2007 – On Monday at the United Center, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation), Nothing But Nets spokesperson Luol Deng, and the Bulls called on Chicago citizens to help lead Americans across the country in a response to an urgent, immediate need for insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria in temporary refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan and Chad-CAR border.
It is estimated that 25 percent of children under five in the camps will die from malaria if the nets are not delivered before the height of the rainy season.
Working together in Chad, UNICEF, the UN High Commission on Refugees and the MENTOR Initiative recognized this emergency need and immediately sought assistance from the UN Foundation to help provide the bed nets.
The UN Foundation, through its Nothing But Nets campaign—a global, grassroots effort to deliver insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria—pledges to raise the necessary funds to meet the need and send the life-saving nets. Nothing But Nets partner, the Chicago Bulls, were on hand to announce their pledge to the fundraising effort.
The appeal came during the middle of a series of events Nothing But Nets is hosting in Chicago as part of its national effort to raise awareness about malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. During the month, the UN Foundation, the People of the United Methodist Church, Major League Soccer's M.L.S. Works, the Chicago Fire, the Chicago Bulls, the Chicago Sky, and the Luol Deng Foundation are co-hosting several events, including a Malaria Boot Camp for over 200 local middle and high school students and a faith leaders breakfast for area faith and lay leaders.
