Lebanese Student Selected to Spearhead Anti- Malaria Campaign
A sixteen year old Maronite Christian from Lebanon has been selected by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to spearhead their anti-malaria campaign in Lebanon.
Sharen Aoun will be part of a worldwide relay campaign: “Where’s the Net?” to raise awareness about malaria prevention. She is the youngest of twenty five “Net Bearers” selected out of over a hundred worldwide applicants from countries including Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, India, Kenya and Nigeria.
She will be tasked with mobilizing different faith communities in Lebanon around malaria. A symbolic anti-malaria net will travel from Net Bearer to Net Bearer across the world to spread vital messages about the devastating, yet preventable, disease which kills up to 750,000 people each year.
She plans to focus on raising awareness in her high school. Sharen will give presentations on malaria, teaching students and teachers about the disease and more importantly what they can do to help end it. She will sell blue ribbons, symbolizing anti-malaria bed nets which are often blue in color, at assembly (444 students and 45 teachers) to raise funds and awareness for the cause.
Sharen and her best friend will also record a song about malaria which will have a church choir backing. This song will be made available on a CD and sold to people of all faiths within her local community, all profits of which will go to helping end deaths from malaria. Other interesting Net Bearer events include: a rock concert in Argentina and a trek to Mount Everest.
This is not Sharen’s first engagement with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Last year she was shortlisted for their global film competition, Faith Shorts, for her film “The Window” which explores the comfort that faith can provide to those who are grieving. Sharen’s school is also part of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s global schools program, Face to Faith.
The program aims to build understanding about different religions by connecting students in 17 countries across the world via video-conferences and a secure website. Students explore global issues such as malaria from different cultural and faith perspectives. It was engagement with students of different faiths which helped motivate Sharen to get involved in the multi-faith anti-malaria campaign.
She said: “Talking to young people with different perspectives has broadened my outlook on life. Learning about different traditions has also inspired me to find out more about my own Christian faith so that I can share this with them.”
Tony Blair, Founder and Patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation said: “ ‘Where’s the Net?’ is aimed at increasing awareness of malaria and its prevention around the world. I encourage the people of Lebanon to help Sharen spread these key messages. With your efforts and with this message, we can reach faith communities all over the world and save lives
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation aims to promote respect and understanding between the major religions. They empower, support and train young people in over 140 countries to take multi-faith action to eliminate deaths from malaria, providing them with a positive alternative to those who try to use faith as a means to divide.
The foundation creates opportunities for people of faith and none to come together to learn directly from each other and to take joint action on shared humanitarian goals. www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org
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