[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 16 (Monday, April 28, 2008)]
[Pages 596-599]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Malaria Awareness Day in Hartford

April 25, 2008

    Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you for the kind 
introduction, Roxanne. She wrote it--read it just like I wrote it. 
[Laughter] It's good to be with you. I appreciate the--being here at the 
Boys and Girls Club here in Hartford. I really enjoyed being with the 
boys and girls of the Boys and Girls Club. Thank you for greeting us.
    I--we do have something in common--at least I do--with the Boys and 
Girls Club. As Roxanne noted, the Boys and Girls Club were born in 
Connecticut. Well, so was I, just a little different date, you know. 
[Laughter] The Boys and Girls Clubs are 102. My daughters think I act 
like I'm 102 at times. [Laughter] But I really thank you all for 
greeting me.
    I want to thank the members of this club for your compassionate work 
in the fight against malaria. And that's what I want to spend some time 
talking about today. I appreciate being joined by Melinda Doolittle of 
American Idol. I've gotten to know Melinda because Melinda is not only a 
great talent; Melinda has got a huge heart. And it's interesting, isn't 
it, that she has garnered all this publicity and acclaim, all to channel 
it into helping other people. And I love your example, and I thank you 
for your leadership.
    And I'm also honored to be up here with Tamika Raymond, as well as 
Charlie Villanueva. They know something about the State of Connecticut 
because they were stars on their respective University of Connecticut 
Husky basketball teams. They are professional athletes, one with the 
Milwaukee Bucks and the other with the Connecticut Sun. But more 
importantly, they're using their presence on the court to be able to 
advance important issues. And, in my judgment, a great issue to advance 
is saving people's lives. And that's what we're here to celebrate today.
    Sorry my wife isn't with me. She is a huge supporter of the malaria 
initiative. She cares a lot, like the people on this stage care a lot, 
about the human condition here in America and elsewhere. She's getting 
ready to be the mother of the bride--[laughter]--which

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I guess that means I'm getting ready to be the father of the bride.
    I want to thank Admiral Tim Ziemer. He is the Coordinator for the 
U.S. Malaria Initiative. You notice I said admiral. He's--when it comes 
to picking people to get a job done, you want somebody who can go from 
point A to point Z and plow ahead through the obstacles. You know, I'm 
really not interested in policies that are long on rhetoric and short on 
results. I think the taxpayers, as well as the people we're trying to 
help, need to know our strategy is well-defined, with clear goals, and 
we hold people accountable. And the great thing about Admiral Ziemer is, 
he's willing to hold people to account and willing to be held to account 
himself. And you're about to hear some of the progress we've made, and a 
lot of it has to do with his leadership. And I'm proud you're here. 
Thanks for coming.
    I also thank Sam Gray--[applause]--not just your family members who 
are cheering; that's good. [Laughter]
    So I've come to herald the Boys and Girls Clubs all across America, 
and they do fine work. And Roxanne is right; they're saving lives. And I 
want to thank you for the--for those of you who support the Boys and 
Girls Clubs here in Hartford and around the country.
    But today also marks the second annual Malaria Awareness Day in the 
United States. And here to help celebrate that day with us is the 
Congressman from Connecticut, Christopher Shays. Thank you for coming.
    On this day, we remember those who've died from malaria. In other 
words, an awareness day is one in which you recognize the consequences, 
in this case, of this disease. And so we mourn the loss of life, 
especially and including the children who have needlessly died on the 
continent of Africa and elsewhere. They died because of a mosquito bite. 
Also--this is a day of hope, however, as well. And the reason it is, 
because nations once trapped in fear because of malaria are now tackling 
malaria head on. And they're doing so with our help.
    It is a day of hope because more Americans are recognizing the 
timeless truth: To whom much is given, much is required. It should be 
the corner--and is--the cornerstone of American foreign policy. Some 
people say, ``Well, what about our own people?'' And my answer is, we're 
plenty rich to help our own and to help others. We've been a blessed 
nation, and it's in our interest to share our blessings with other. It's 
a day of hope because compassionate souls are acting on the truth and 
helping to wipe out malaria in Africa and beyond.
    A few moments ago, I presented three Dragonfly Awards. So, like, you 
say, ``Why call some--an award a Dragonfly Award?'' Well, the award is 
named for the natural predator of the mosquito. And each one of this 
year's winners has shown great determination in working hard and in 
creative ways to eradicate the disease.
    The first Dragonfly Award winner went to Roxanne, who accepted on 
behalf of the Boys and Girls Club of America. A year and a half ago, 
Roxanne attended a White House summit on malaria hosted by Laura and me, 
and she was touched by the suffering that malaria inflicts on African 
children. And so she pledged to rally American children to help. And she 
acted on the pledge. Sometimes in life, you get the pledgers and not 
doers; in this case, it was the pledger and the doer.
    More than 150 Boys and Girls Clubs have joined the campaign to raise 
funds and spread awareness. Local clubs have held events ranging from 
car washes to bake sales to walkathons. Altogether, Boys and Girls Clubs 
have raised some $25,000, more than enough to buy 2,500 bed nets for 
families in Africa.
    I know the boys and girls will probably never meet any of the lives 
who are being saved. I had the honor of traveling to Africa, and I can 
assure all who've been helping, the people of Africa are most grateful 
to the American citizens for their help.
    The second Dragonfly Award winner is Zachary Ellenthal, who happens 
to be from Connecticut. When Zach celebrated his bar mitzvah last 
October, he asked family and friends not to give him money. Instead, he 
wrote a letter with facts about malaria in sub-Sahara Africa and asked 
his guests to consider donating to Malaria No More. He even set up a web 
page so they could make donations online. As a result of this man's 
compassion and decency, he raised more than

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$11,000 to purchase bed nets. And Zachary--[applause].
    The final Dragonfly Award winner is Allyson Brown from Florida. 
Allyson came up with an innovative way to combine two of her passions: 
one, fighting malaria in Africa, and school dances. She put together a 
fundraising dance with the theme Stayin' Alive, and came away with more 
than $1,600 in donations. Then she built upon her success by working 
with Malaria No More to start a nationwide Stayin' Alive campaign. So 
far, more than 100 schools in 30 States have joined. Together they've 
raised more than $30,000 to purchase bed nets. Allyson will be 
graduating from high school this year, and she's on her way to Florida 
State University.
    The interesting thing is, there are countless stories like this 
across America. From major corporations, to the NBA and WNBA, to small-
town faith-based groups, the American people are rallying to stop a 
preventable and treatable disease. I try to explain to people that the 
great compassion of America is defined by the thousands of acts of 
kindness that take place on a daily basis.
    The Federal Government is doing our part; we have a role to play. In 
2005, I launched what we've called the President's Malaria Initiative, 
which is a 5-year, $1.2 billion initiative to cut the number of malaria-
related deaths in 15 African nations by half. In other words, we're 
focusing our attempt with a clear goal. It's an ambitious goal, but the 
program is off to a very strong start. In just 2 years, the initiative 
has helped provide bed nets and antimalaria medicine, insecticide 
sprays, and prenatal drugs to an estimated 25 million people in sub-
Sahara Africa.
    Behind these numbers are whole communities looking to the future 
with renewed hope. Laura and I saw this--as I've mentioned, we went to 
Africa in February. It was such a touching moment to hold babies in our 
arms who might have died without the support of our fellow citizens. We 
visited children your age who can go to school because they're free of 
malaria. And the good news is, we listened to determined African leaders 
described how life is being transformed for their people, and how they 
want to help; how they thank the American people for their great 
compassion, but understand it's their responsibility to put strategies 
in place and to see that they're followed through.
    I want to tell you an amazing statistic, and this is what's going to 
happen all across Africa where we're focusing our efforts. In Tanzania, 
the percentage of infants in Zanzibar infected with malaria has dropped 
from about 20 percent to less than 1 percent in 2 years. There are 
thousands more children who can grow up healthy, who will be able to 
contribute to their society and reach their potential. Here's--one man 
said, when he summed up America's efforts to fight malaria--he called it 
``a godsend.''
    America is proud to lead the way, and we are urging other nations to 
join us. Last summer, we had a meeting, what's called the G-8, and I 
called upon them to join the United States and match our commitment to 
cut malaria deaths in half in an additional 15 countries. So we're 
willing to take the lead on 15 countries where we're needed--where help 
is needed the most, but we expect you, as well, as nations to whom much 
is given to be joining us. And they made their pledges; they made their 
promises. And we're going to have a meeting in July, another G-8 meeting 
in July, and they need to make sure that they meet their pledges. There 
are babies dying needlessly on the continent of Africa, and if they have 
made a pledge to support the efforts to fight malaria, they need to 
write the checks. And I, of course, will be reminding them of that in a 
very gentle way--[laughter]--diplomatic fashion.
    Our efforts to fight malaria means that we're answering a moral 
imperative. It's in our Nation's moral interests to do this. We're a 
better nation, collectively a better nation, that when we help people, 
when we save lives--but it's also a strategy that advances our security 
interests as well. From experience, we understand that the terrorists 
and extremists can only find fertile recruiting grounds where they find 
hopelessness. Their ideology is so backwards, so distorted, so hateful, 
nobody really wants to follow it unless you're so hopeless that it 
becomes appealing. And so the best way to defeat this ideology of hate 
is with acts of compassion

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and love. The best way to defeat an ideology of darkness is to spread 
the light of hope.
    And that's exactly what we're doing. So, to my fellow citizens, I 
not only say it's in our moral interest to help; it's in our strategic 
interests to help defeat these ideologues who murder the innocent to 
achieve their political objectives.
    America is fully committed to this mission of mercy. The United 
States of America is doing the right thing, and your Government and the 
people of this country are showing their kindness and compassion and 
decency. Any American who wants to become involved in this mission can 
go to fightingmalaria.gov. It's pretty easy. All you got to do is type 
in fightingmalaria.gov, and you can find out how you can help a worthy 
and noble and necessary cause.
    I thank you for coming and giving me a chance to explain our 
initiative. God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:44 a.m. at the Northwest Boys & Girls 
Club. In his remarks, he referred to Roxanne Spillett, president and 
chief executive officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of America; entertainer 
Melinda Doolittle; and Samuel S. Gray, Jr., president and chief 
executive officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford, Inc.