FAITHS ACT TOGETHER – TONY BLAIR CALLS FOR ACTION

Thursday 5^th February: Tony Blair today issued a call to action to encourage people of faith around the world to act together to show the power of "a million good deeds done every day" in the name of religion.

"For billions of people, faith motivates, galvanises, compels and inspires, not to exclude to embrace; not to provoke conflict but to try to do good. This is faith in action," he said, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. "You can see it in the arousing of the world's conscience to the plight of Africa, a cause we in positions of political power tried to answer, but which was driven by people of faith."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation today stepped up its campaign to raise funds and eliminate millions of unnecessary deaths from malaria – giving people a practical way of demonstrating how faith can heal rather than divide the world. Faiths Act Together (www.faithsacttogether.org), is a locally driven campaign urging faith-based activity around its "Story of a Bed Net" film to encourage shared ideas, discussion and actions to tackle deaths from malaria.

Tony Blair said:

"A million deaths a year from malaria is wholly preventable. We want 2009 to be the year that people of faith become the change makers against malaria and take direct action to tackle this preventable disease.

"We have already received hundreds of requests from people around the world asking how to get involved and what action they can take. We all know the problems associated with conflict between religions but there is another, more positive story too."

Faiths Act Together events are not meant to be prescriptive and all action aimed at raising awareness and funds is encouraged by the Foundation. There are toolkits and a freely downloadable film The Story of a Bed Net available, which have already helped volunteers in 27 countries to organise community events and raise thousands of pounds for bed nets.

Up to 500 million people suffer from malaria and up to one million people die unnecessarily from the disease annually. In Africa, malaria kills one child every 30 seconds. Faith Acts Together aims to work with partners worldwide to raise enough money to eradicate deaths from the disease - just one £5 or $10 insecticide-treated bed net can protect an entire household.

The Foundation would like to encourage all those interested to get involved and share their ideas, experiences and events via the website by emailing faithsact@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org.

For more information go to our new website www.faithsacttogether.org