TheatreMania Africa Festival (TAF) has announced the plan to launch its advocacy initiative christened Africa Rise Against Malaria (#ARAM). TheatreMania Ambassadors namely Akin Lewis, Norbert Young, Doris Simeon, Owen Gee (Nigeria), Thandekile Grace Maseko, Sibongile Maria Phakathi (South Africa), Zani Michelle Chiumia a.k.a Zani Challe (Malawi) and Uncle Ebo Whyte (Ghana), will join other hundreds of Theatre Groups across Africa to give a VOICE to the campaign and specifically create awareness, impact and intervene in the movement against malaria in five countries namely Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria from December, 2016 as part of the Build-Up activities for the TAF March, 2017 event. The awareness and the push for #ARAM has began.

As TheatreMania pushes Africa to rise against Malaria through #ARAM, the group plans to donate and distribute Insecticide Treated Malaria nets(ITM nets) and Mosquito Repellant to pregnant women, children, hospitals  during her visits to Orphanages, General/Public Hospitals, Ante-Natal Clinics, Primary and Secondary Schools as well as drugs and insecticides across the shortlisted Africa countries.

In the words of the CEO & Co-Founder of TAF, Mr. Alayande Stephen T. , he stated that “according to the United Nations every two minutes, a child dies from malaria. The Center for Disease Control And Prevention also state that3.2 billion people live in areas at risk of malaria transmission in 106 countries and territories, putting Africa on the fore-front on that list, so, we at TheatreMania Africa thought to ourselves and said we have to contribute our quota to this effort; hence, we stepped up to tackle Malaria through our advocacy initiative christened Africa Rise Against Malaria (#ARAM) with fusion of drama sketches, dances and skits” he averred.

Also, there will be Peace Walk around the city with distribution of fliers/stickers relevant to the campaign while there will also be intermittent short mobile drama skits/sketches and dances to entertain the people. The movement will take the team to different media houses (TV/Radio/Print) after which they will visit the Government Office of the selected countries.

“For far too long Africa has been plagued by the menace called Malaria” said Co-Founder/Artistic Director of TAF, Mr. Paul Uwagbai. “How long would we sit back and do little or nothing about it. We decided that the fight is not just for the world government, United Nation’s Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organizations (WHO) but for all of us; that is why we took matters into our hands through #ARAM”, he added.

TAF Malawian ambassador, Zani Challe; also concurred with what Mr. Uwagbai said; she explained that she fell in love with #ARAM because she would be able to effect a change in her country. “Malaria-related deaths in Malawi were recorded as 9,484 accounting for 6.3% of the total recorded deaths in my country. Malaria accounts for 40% of people hospitalized in Malawi. Use of insecticide-treated nets for malaria prevention is still very low in Malawi thus exposing the majority of the population to the risk of contacting malaria. The high cost of treating malaria has led to significant deaths especially among the poor communities. I’m glad that through #ARAM, I can help contribute my quota to helping Africa Rise Against Malaria (#ARAM).

It is a festival organized to give a resounding voice to Africa`s expression in all its forms and meant to echo unity amongst the human race. The festival is an all-encompassing pot-pourri of activities to celebrate Africa`s theatre and cultural values in its entirety.

TheatreMania Africa Festival is an annual gathering meant to celebrate the crème-de-la-crème of stage and on screen African acts, blacks in Diaspora and other stakeholders in the Africa entertainment industry. The Festival in one of the initiatives of TheatreMania Africa Concepts with the support from its South Africa Principal Partners in Content Africa Initiatives PTY Ltd and Planet Image Productions (Producers of Good Morning Africa and Owners of Planet TV- Channels 328-DSTV), Total Recall Media Limited, Eagles House Global Resources, Black Image Theatre Productions.

Marcus Yemiete

Media Executive

TheatreMania Africa Festival

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