Kutcher-Backed Twitter Campaign Helps Bring 90,000 Malaria Nets to Senegal

 By 
Samuel Axon
 on 
Kutcher-Backed Twitter Campaign Helps Bring 90,000 Malaria Nets to Senegal
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Malaria No More's campaign went viral on Twitter on World Malaria Day 2009, and the current Twitter initiative will conclude just in time for World Malaria Day 2010. The most retweeted message last World Malaria Day was: "Every 30 seconds a child dies from Malaria. Nets save lives. Support World Malaria Day = www.MalariaNoMore.org." Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher helped make it happen.

The nets will be distributed in the Senagalese towns of Seraya and Vélingara; each person at risk for malaria will get a net to protect him or her from the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

Kutcher — who has now exceeded four million followers — said at the 2010 People's Choice awards, "The true reward of the race to a million followers on Twitter are the 90,000 people in Senegal who will sleep underneath bed nets because of the money we all raised through the race." Other Twitter celebrities who helped spread the word included Anderson Cooper, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ryan Seacrest and Oprah.

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