A CBC personality rallied SFU students yesterday to give what they could to help save lives.
A raucous crowd of undergraduates greeted Rick Mercer for the launch of Spread The Net Challenge to raise money for bed nets to be donated to African communities vulnerable to malaria.
Former MP Belinda Stronach took Mercer to Africa to educate the TV host on the severity of the disease.
"The only thing I said to Belinda before I went to Africa was, 'I'm not coming back from Africa [like] one of the arseholes on TV who won't shut up about Africa,' " Mercer recalled. "And yet, here I am."
Mercer witnessed an extreme disparity in the health and prosperity of communities who had mosquito nets compared to those who did not.
To up the ante Mercer added a special incentive for students to fundraise for the nets, which cost $10 a piece.
"As an added twist we're taking a page from Stephen Harper's book," he said. "We're going to pit region against region to achieve a nefarious goal."
Mercer will visit the top fundraising school in western Canada and Eastern Canada to film an episode of his critically acclaimed Rick Mercer Report.
Malaria facts
- Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria
- Malaria kills 3,000 children a day
- Worldwide there are 300 million to 500 million cases of malaria
- 1.3 million people die from malaria each yar
- UNICEF procured more than 23 million insecticed treated bed nets to date
- For more information visit www.spreadthenet.org
