Faiths Act Fellows help spread the net

Six Canadian youth of different faiths have helped the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to reach its $5-million , 500,000 malaria nets goal.

These six Faiths Act Fellows based in Toronto and Montreal were part of Canada’s inaugural Faiths Act Fellowship launched by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core. The interfaith initiative paired 30 young Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and Humanists and was designed to show that when people of different religions work together to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, they can have a crucial role in reducing conflict and saving lives. The students spent the past 10 months building multi-faith relationships by encouraging different faith communities to work together to raise funds and awareness to tackle malaria and other global issues.

Through their multi-faith community fundraising initiatives, the Faiths Act Fellows have raised more than $140,000 which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair personally matched to bring the total to $280,000. This money will go to leading charities in the fight against malaria including Spreading the Net, which had a commitment of delivering 500,000 bed nets to children and families in Liberia and Rwanda.

The Faiths Act campaign will now be carried on by volunteers in 75 countries across the world with 12 cities in Canada, the United States and in the United Kingdom at the forefront.

The next fellowship will begin in August 2011 and expand into India and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Foundation was founded by Blair in May 2008. See www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org.