Tony Blair Faith Foundation

The significance of World Malaria Day on 25th April is likely to be different if you live in London or Freetown. For those who live in Sierra Leone it will be a reminder again that malaria is the number one killer of young children. In the UK there may not even be the memory that in the Kent marshes malaria killed whole families in the 18th century.  It may not seem relevant. But it is. The names on gravestones in Kent, like the names of children buried in Sierra Leone, each represent a tragic waste of a life.

The globally recognised house of music and fashion memorabilia, and of course beer, Hard Rock Café, New Delhi plays its CSR part by joining hands with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to kick start a campaign called ‘The City is Ours’ with a fashion show. The campaign which aims to raise awareness about the health and sanitation issues in Savda Ghera, a slum resettlement colony in Delhi saw a fashion show being organised at the café in collaboration with designers from the J.D Institute – Prachi Rastogi, Priyanka, Ankita, Vaibhav Joshi garments constructed fro

Malaria Day is important both for those inside malaria infected countries and those outside. “For those outside, it draws attention to the catastrophe that this disease can cause. For those inside the country, it highlights the fact malaria can be controlled and shows people how they can protect themselves from it.

  Charles Dickens' depiction of Magwitch grabbing Pip has stuck in my mind and, I suspect, in the mind of generations of scared school boys who watched or read "Great Expectations." The Kent churchyard, with its "lozenge shaped" tomb stones, in "marsh country down by the river," is now firmly on the literary tourist trail during the Dickens 200th anniversary.

In an increasingly digital world, face to face encounters still reign supreme. This was abundantly clear over the two days of the Faith and Globalisation International Conference, hosted by Yale University earlier this April. In this, our third annual International Day, it was evident that members have gone from being colleagues to collaborators, and even perhaps from acquaintances to friends.

Josephine Muhairwe is a Ugandan medical doctor. In August 2011 she was selected by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to lead their multi-faith health messaging programme: Faiths Act in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has a population of six million people and just 102 medics but in every village there are churches and mosques. Faiths Act in Sierra Leone is utilising these existing faith networks and infrastructures to turn bed net ownership into bed net usage.

Faith communities, especially at the community level, contribute in countless ways to health care. This report provides a full scale literature review of the role and impact of faith inspired organizations. It finds documentary evidence that they are frequently very effective health providers. It also highlights the extensive research challenge that exists. Since 2008, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation has contributed to the study of faith and globalisation, and supported the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals by faith communities.

Manila, Philippines - A video conference among students from the Manggahan High School Pasig and the St. Mark’s Senior Secondary School in New Delhi, India, provided a medium for a discussion on religious faith and practices as part of a program to build understanding and friendship among youth from different parts of the world. The video conference, the first of its kind to involve Philippine public school students, was part of the Face to Faith Program of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.