World Malaria Day!

Pritpal and I headed down to Handsworth Park early on Sunday to set up.  We attracted some funny looks from the other stallholders -- I guess the 8 foot tall David Beckham cutout and 4 metre wide banner must have stood out slightly.

Mid-morning, people started arriving and the Mela began in earnest.  Our stall was in a great position, near to the children's play area and opposite some food stalls, so there was plenty of footfall.  Around midday the processions began to arrive at the park.  This was my first Mela and I was amazed at how many people were there!

Together with some of our awesome Hub volunteers, sporting their brand new Faiths Act t-shirts, we raised over £800 for Malaria No More UK.  We also raised awareness by encouraging people to 'End It Like Beckham' and show malaria the red card.

We also used Malaria No More branded footballs in the sports tournaments, and the organisers kindly made periodic announcements about World Malaria Day. We received a few messages of support from Local Councilors at the event, and Tony Blair kindly recorded a video message for us for the event.

All in all, it was a wonderful day!

Sean Rose

Faiths Act Fellow