A team of celebrities that climbed Mount Kilimanjaro earlier this year to help the fight against malaria, have been helping deliver mosquito nets in Uganda. The celebrities raised £3.5 million through their climb, as part of a massive fundraising exercise by Comic Relief for Red Nose Day 2009. The funds were awarded to support Malaria Consortium’s ‘Pioneer project’, a key part of which is the distribution of mosquito nets across Western Uganda
This week, some of the stars – Fearne Cotton, Gary Barlow, Ben Shephard, Kimberley Walsh and Chris Moyles – visited Hoima, in Uganda to help distribute half a million Olyset long-lasting insecticide nets from Sumitomo Chemical.
You can see footage of the celebrities giving out nets on http://www.comicrelief.com/news/uganda_report.
The team’s trip to Uganda is being filmed for a special report back TV show called Comic Relief: The Net Result to broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 27th December at 6.30pm.
Olyset Net has become renowned worldwide thanks to the photography commissioned by Sumitomo Chemical from leading American photographer Maggie Hallahan. These photos are available to the malaria community at: www.olysetphotos.com. Visitors to the site can request use of photos from Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania.