Twitter Nets Distribution

Malaria No More Distributes Nets from Ashton Kutcher's Twitter Challenge

Tags: Senegal

The mosquito nets raised during the Ashton vs. CNN Twitter race were distributed to save lives. A simple tweet that turned into the "Most Re-Tweeted Message" on World Malaria Day (WMD) 2009 helped provide 89,724 life-saving nets in Senegal.

The "Twitter Nets" rolled out in Saraya to provide 7,000 mosquito nets to villagers in need, and the remaining nets went to African households in Velingara. The distributions helped close the malaria protection gap in both villages, granting everyone at risk of malaria in Saraya and Velingara universal access to a net. The distribution of "Twitter Nets" winded down in March, in time for WMD on April 25, 2010.

On top of distributing nets, MNM brought Twitter to Senegal! Villagers that attended the distribution posed with a Twitter frame to say "thank you" to the "twitosphere" (all of you!) for raising awareness of malaria and providing them with life-saving nets. MNM sends a special "thank you" to partners on the ground, the Peace Corps, Tostan and World Vision.

Twistory

• Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) challenged CNN (@cnnbrk) to a Twitter race to see which could reach 1M followers first. Ashton pledged to donate 10,000 mosquito nets to MNM if he got there first, and his pledge catapulted him to success as the race coincided with WMD 2009.
• Individuals on Twitter (YOU!) matched Ashton's pledge...and then some. Over $500K was raised on Twitter alone!
• Backed by "twitteratis" Anderson Cooper (@AndersonCooper), Sean "Diddy" Combs (@iamdiddy), Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah), Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) and all of you, 89,724 life-saving mosquito nets are reaching African families.

See The Impact

See the faces of the children and families that are now sleeping safely in Senegal thanks to the generosity of the Twitter community. All photos © Maggie Hallahan