African Dinner-Dance Party to Fight Malaria

April 12 event will raise money to protect children and pregnant women

Monday, April 7, 2008

Durham, NC -- Triangle residents can dance to African music and enjoy African foods while helping to save African children and pregnant mothers from malaria at 7 p.m., April 12, at the Durham Armory, 220 Foster Street, in Durham.

This fund-raising event is sponsored by the Bonjour African Malaria Project (BAMP) and will include live entertainment, dinner and exceptional dance music. The last African Dinner-Dance Party held in April 2007 raised nearly $10,000 to provide bed nets to protect pregnant mothers and children under five from becoming infected with the malaria virus.

The project’s advisory board includes Duke historian John Hope Franklin and physicians Dr. Onye Akwari and Dr. Peter Agre.

The World Health Organization also reported that “Malaria is responsible for 2 percent of all deaths worldwide and 9 percent of deaths in Africa. About 1.1 million deaths -- almost all in children -- are directly attributable to the tropical disease, and at least 1 million more occur from complications.”

Each year, BAMP holds its African Dinner-Dance Party in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area to raise funds to buy insecticide-treated mosquito nets and deliver them directly to African children and youth through a community-based healthcare network in Linguere, Senegal.

The African Dinner-Dance Party will feature live performances, a complimentary buffet of African foods, a cash bar, and African music and dancing from deejay Bouna Ndiaye, host of the popular Bonjour Africa music show heard Sundays on WNCU 90.7FM.

Tickets for the event are $25 and are available in advance and at the door. All donations are tax deductible. Checks should be made payable to Bonjour Africa Projects Inc.