MalariaEngage.com - Social Networking For A Cause
All of 25 Tom Hadfield, a fourth-year political science student at Harvard university, came up with the idea for MalariaEngage.org after a trip to Zambia last summer that gave him a close-up look at the mosquito-born disease.
Tom Hadfield know for selling his soccer Web site Soccer.net, to U.S. sports network ESPN for $40 million at the age of 17, now hopes to harness the power of sites such as Facebook to curb a disease that kills an estimated one million people a year, many of them in Africa.
The site encourages people to donate $10 or more to help support seven different research projects in Tanzania, such as developing plants like lemongrass to repel mosquitoes. But Hadfield sees MalariaEngage.org as more than a fundraising tool.
“MalariaEngage.org increases the return on investment of donors by connecting them directly with researchers working on malaria prevention treatment,” Hadfield told Reuters. “It’s about more than about giving money — it’s about creating connections. By encouraging individual participation and involvement, we will create international communities of common interest. This is the essence of social networking.”
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