Africa is the continent of the future, with 60% of the population under 25 years old it has the youngest population in the world. But a deadly disease is stealing this future - Malaria affects mainly young children, killing a child every two minutes.

There is also hope: malaria is a preventable disease. In a study published in the Lancet, 41 leading scientists have stated that malaria can be eradicated by 2050. At the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, all 53 country leaders committed to halve malaria by 2023. But only if governments live up to their commitments and put real action in place.

Malaria No More asked us to create a way to bring the African youth together and pressure world leaders to put Malaria back on the political agenda - to make sure they will be the last generation to ever see Malaria.

Draw The Line Against Malaria is a movement led by the generation that will end malaria.

To end Malaria, African youth needed to demand action from heads of state. But growing up with Malaria as an inevitable fact of life had made youth lose hope in a malaria-free future. To bring this hope back, we made the mission of ending Malaria part of African youth culture

To tap into African culture, we partnered with renowned Nigerian Artist and Activist Laolu Sebanjo. Together we created a modular line pattern that would represent our movement. The Muundo combines traditional line art with technology to create a collective artwork that demands a malaria free future from world leaders.

We built the movement line by line. Inviting celebrities, influencers and digital african youth to add their own line to a digital platform and facefilter, turning the pattern into a collective statement against malaria.

With 60% of the population under 25 years old Africa has the youngest population in the world and was a generation that had lost hope in a malaria free future.

This made us realise that we needed to create a youth movement to effectively drive the much needed political action.

To engage African digital youth in the fight against malaria we injected the conversation into the youth culture. Africa has become a powerful cultural voice with strong cultural leaders, so we asked them to lead the movement with the generation that will end malaria.

We created a visual language that allowed everyone to add their line to a collective message: The Muundo. The messages were further personalised with a modular headline: “Malaria, we’re too _____ for you”. The Muundo informed every element of this movement.

We worked together with Laolu Senbanjo to create a visual language that allowed everyone to add their line to a collective message: The Muundo. The Muundo is designed as a modular system that allows african youth to personalise their message with a range of graphics and symbols. In addition they can personalise a modular modular headline: “Malaria, we’re too _____ for you”. The Muundo informed every element of this movement.

The Muundo was the centerpiece that informed every element of the campaign:

–The campaign was launched with a film that invited African youth to join our movement. The film featured cultural leaders Eliud Kipchoge, Omotola Ekeinde, Sherry Silver and Siya Kolisi.

–A fashion capsule collection created with Nigerian streetwear label I N Official helped us to get the message out on the streets and the feeds.

–The animation film narrated by Grammy award singer Yemi Alade told the full story of the Muundo from its origin (traditional body painting) to the collective artwork that spreads across the world.

–The online platform allowed everyone to personalise their message and add it to a collective mural.

–A face filter on instagram and facebook, launched in partnership with 50 African influencers, enabled digital youth to wear the Muundo as a face mask.

– A PR, influencer and ambassador industry ensured that all of the above was visible across social media, outdoor, global and african news channels.

We created a true movement, with over 1.4 billion impressions to date and over 3 million dollars in free media space donated to support the campaign, generating over 7.5 million video views and over 2 million site visits. The digital platform, facefilter and social influencer strategy generated 24.7 million campaign engagements. The movement has been featured on BBC, CNN, CNBC, Al Jazeera, SKY, MTV, Nickelodeon and more.

The campaign inspired a generation to believe in a future without malaria – 69% of youth surveyed believe that malaria can be eliminated in their country. After the meeting of the Commonwealth Health Ministers on 20-21 May 2021, the following statement was released: “We agree to accelerate progress towards the target of halving malaria by 2023 and resolve to continue our commitment to combating the disease across the Commonwealth in order to achieve regional and global malaria targets for 2030.”