World Malaria Day presents a unique opportunity to raise awareness about malaria and to mobilise communities across the world to get involved in the fight against this disease.

In 2008 the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership unveiled the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), which set out what needs to be achieved to meet the short, medium and long term goals of malaria control, elimination and eventual eradication. That same year the World Malaria Day website was established to help individuals and civil society contribute to the achievement of the GMAP goals, as a dynamic and interactive information and advocacy portal. The website is based around the RBM Partnership two-year campaign "Counting Malaria Out" and is the first medium of its kind through which civil society groups can share their work and disseminate messages on and around World Malaria Day.

The website has several interactive features to allow people to get involved in World Malaria Day. Key among these is the World Malaria Day button, a virtual campaign in collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

The World Malaria Day button is designed to be displayed on all supporting websites, blogs and social networking profiles. The aim is to have it displayed on as many websites as possible by World Malaria Day. Clicking on the button directs visitors to both to the World Malaria Day civil society website and RBM’s World Malaria Day homepage so they can find out more about World Malaria Day activities

The code for the button can be downloaded at
http://www.worldmalariaday.org/add_button.cfm.

You can follow World Malaria Day on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Thanks to the Malaria Consortium for contributing this post.

In the US you can text “NETS” to 864233 to donate $10 to UNICEF's Malaria fund or click here. Together we can make a difference!