Conquering malaria is a mighty undertaking. Only together we stand a chance!
The Ponyville FM premiere of our fifth charity album since 2011, Shine Together, marks the launch of our new Seeds of Kindness fund-raiser for 2014 and 2015, which is going to reach out through multiple conventions, pony celebrity livestreams, giveaways, and other spectacular events. All donations go to the Against Malaria Foundation.
Shine Together Release Party
Saturday, December 20, 2014, at 6 p.m. EST (11 p.m. UTC)
on events.yoursiblings.org
For the limited time of the premiere stream, an anonymous donor has agreed to match all donations up to $1,000, so if you tune in and donate right away, your donation counts double!
The album. Shine Together is the culmination of months of effort on the part of many dedicated fandom musicians. Over an hour of tasty jams recorded by charity album veterans and new blood alike, Shine Together offers over an hour of uplifting tunes.
Bronies for Good is offering up this and its previous four albums for free, facilitating donations toward the Against Malaria Foundation on good will!
The charity. Half the world’s population is at risk of malaria. In 2012, about 627,000 people died of the disease, the equivalent of four Boeing 747 crashing every day with no survivors. On average, one person dies of malaria every minute. (WHO 2013) This has to end.
Long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs), are the most cost-effective means of malaria prevention. LLINs are mosquito nets, usually bed nets, which not only physically protect against malaria-infected mosquitoes but are also treated with an insecticide that lasts for several years and in that time kills any mosquitoes that may otherwise be able to find possible gaps or tears in the net. At a price of just about $3 each, bed nets are a thoroughly proven, highly effective intervention. Depending on the region they also protect from other diseases transmitted by the same vector species, such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and forms of encephalitis.
The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), founded in 2004, supports local distributors by funding the hundreds of thousands of nets that are needed in LLIN distributions. It stands out because of its strong commitment to transparency and self-evaluation. AMF is one of the most provably effective charities in the world.
All the money donated to Seeds of Kindness goes directly to AMF, who will use it exclusively to buy LLINs. Donations are tax-deductible in the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe. Each donation will be publicly allocated to a specific program and extensive tracking, predistribution, and postdistribution reports will be published online.
For further motivation why you should donate, and why you should donate specifically to AMF, here a TED talk by Peter Singer, the founder of The Life You Can Save, and a TEDx talk by Toby Ord, the founder of Giving What We Can, explaining effective altruism and the logic behind our choice to support the highly effective work of AMF.
The interview. Our Bronies for Good cofounder Rommel Pants will be interviewed on the topics of the album and our new fund-raising campaign on The Old Grey Mare starting at 11 p.m. EST, a few hour after the premiere of Shine Together.