Nothing But Nets

Every thirty seconds, a child in Africa dies of Malaria. That means that by the time you’ve finished reading this announcement, two children will have died from a completely preventable disease. You have the power to help save lives. Simple ten-dollar bed nets can protect children’s lives by keeping malaria-carrying mosquitoes out. (Learn more about malaria.)

The People Speak and Americans for Informed Democracy want YOU to raise awareness and funds to support the global fight against malaria. And we want you to film what you do. Our contest is called Buzz Cuts and it strives to harness the power of media and student creativity to save lives. Buzz Cuts is looking for your creative proposals for a “net-raising” event that will help raise money for the Nothing But Nets campaign and build awareness about the global fight against malaria.

The first stage of the Buzz Cuts contact is to submit your event proposal. Your proposal should be around 500 words and should include a specific description of your event plan, your strategy for implementation, and how you will recruit your event and film crews. Click here for an example of what a successful proposal might look like – although we should emphasize that the more creative your proposal the better! Send in your proposals by June 15, 2007. A selection committee will select ten proposals to receive a mini-grant of $500 to implement their project. The main organizer of each winning proposal team will also receive a paid trip to the Buzz Cuts organizers’ retreat in Washington, DC, on July 16 &17, 2007.

In August and September, the ten winning proposal teams will implement their proposals in their community and make a video of their preparation and event. The goal for these teams will be to create mini-films that can serve as toolkits for other young people. Videos from each of the will be posted on thepeoplespeak.org, aidemocracy.org, facebook.com, and youtube.com, and young people all over the country will vote on the best video. The winning film team will receive a $500 cash prize. More importantly, the winning team’s video will set the trend for an entire student movement to fight malaria. Buzz Cuts will offer student organizers across the country mini-grants to specifically replicate the event organizing idea of the Buzz Cut winner.

HOW TO APPLY

Want to learn more about Buzz Cuts? Click here to get the full overview of the Buzz Cuts contest and email buzzcuts@aidemocracy.org or call 203-773-1202 with questions.