UCLA // Current

Using the web keeps dementia at bay

A new study has revealed how using the interweb can slow the onset of dementia in the... more

FreshPlastic
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23 days ago
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Police Recover Knife in UCLA Stabbing

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators have found the knife believed to have... more

tcmfan08
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1 month ago
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UCLA Student Slashes Female's Throat in Science Lab

A male UCLA student slashed the throat of a female student at a campus science lab... more

TravG73
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1 month ago
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14 comments

EGYPTOLOGIST KARA COONEY ON CRAIG FERGUSON

Professor Cooney schools Craig on the Mexico-Egypt Connection.

RENGACORP
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3 months ago
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UCLA ends student Undie Run due to safety concerns

Primarily citing safety concerns, UCLA administrators told student leaders Tuesday... more

TravG73
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4 months ago
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1 comment

UCLA tennis player in a coma

Police say a 20-year-old UCLA tennis player was in a coma after somebody punched him... more

Apocalipstick
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5 months ago
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The Re-Making of Carissa

Years ago, Carissa was abandoned in the lobby of the juvenile hall in Fresno. She ran... more

dsauvage
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5 months ago
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Carissa: From Juvie to Justice

Years ago, Carissa was abandoned in the lobby of the juvenile hall in Fresno. She ran... more

dsauvage
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5 months ago
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7 comments

UCLA paying $220K to tasered student

We produced this piece back in 2006 when Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an undergrad at UCLA... more

afitzgerald
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6 months ago
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44 comments

Story About a Big Squirrel And a Baby Squirrel

Here is a amazing video on how some UCLA students lend a hand to a mother and baby... more

toreyray
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6 months ago
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3 comments

US Grand Jury Indicts Animal Activists (Alleged Domestic Terrorists)

From the article...LOS ANGELES -- Two animal rights activists were charged Monday with... more

ninthstate
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7 months ago
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2 comments

The Simplicity of College Dorm Life

When Adam Hillel Baumgarten was assigned a roommate freshman year of college he had no... more

communiversity
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8 months ago
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Talking about bad feelings helps control them

"Perhaps all those blog posts you wrote about your breakup really did have a purpose.... more

St_Alia_10191
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9 months ago
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3 comments

La fertilità di una donna si può capire dalla sua voce?

La voce femminile? Cambia a seconda del periodo del mese, fertile o non fertile, ed è... more

danito
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1 year ago
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Sports Shorts: October 31 2008 @ CalTV: UC Berkeley's Online TV Station

Caroline and Zeshan bring you Halloween greetings, busted moves, and coverage of this... more

CalTVinfo
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1 year ago
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Thes One & Party Fouls

Thes One, from People Under the Stairs, discusses his most memorable costume and what... more

chapinyoung
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1 year ago
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Brains work best at age 39

Scientists say that our brains reach their prime at 39, and after that, it's all... more

abbym0308
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1 year ago
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61 comments

How a drumming party in LA brought life-saving anti-malaria nets to Africa.

Most of feel that we’d like to do some good in the world, but we don’t know how. With so many urgent problems and seemingly so little that any of us can do about them, how does one get involved in a cause?

It helps to have an obsession, a particular problem that, above all the rest, keeps you from sleeping at night. For me, it was the fact that, because they don’t have access to mosquito bed nets, 3,000 children die of malaria every day in sub-Saharan Africa. I agonized about this until I read that one bed net costs $5. Here was a number that told me I could do something about this problem. Having an impact didn’t seem out of reach.

When Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour, who is also the UN Goodwill Ambassador for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, implored the audience at a concert at UCLA to “do something,” I wanted to heed him, but wasn’t sure exactly how to go about it. The answer came to me a few short hours later when I attended an after-party with crackling Senegalese sabar drumming played by some of N’Dour’s performers and local Senegalese sabar players who are well known to the African music and dance scene in Los Angeles. As a serious student of the sabar myself, many of the performers were friends of mine, and so I had the idea of putting it all together and hosting a big party to raise money to buy nets.

The next morning, I went online and found two small organizations that work to distribute bed nets in Africa; NetLife Africa, started by two medical students who travel around rural Senegal on bicycles delivering nets free of charge; and Netting Nations, a group based in Manhattan Beach that had recently completed a net distribution project in Ghana. I called up Netting Nations, and told Ben Kingston and Ike Stranathan my idea over coffee at Peet’s in Santa Monica. They were ready to sink their teeth into a new fundraising initiative and agreed to collaborate on Drums To Beat Malaria, a big African sabar party that would raise money for bed nets. It was a good partnership; I had access to the performers and a vision of what a sabar party looks like; they had an established non-profit with its tax-exempt status and some fundraising experience whereas I had practically none. We agreed to split the money evenly between NetLife Africa’s project in rural Senegal and Netting Nations’ project to deliver nets to an orphanage in Kenya.

The cornerstone of Drums To Beat Malaria was that everyone working on it would be donating their time, including the performers. We wanted to make sure that every dollar donated went to buy a net. Asking the drummers to work for free made for some uncomfortable moments, but the response was mostly enthusiastic. But once a few drummers signed on, more wanted to do it because they were moved by the cause and for the sheer fun of playing with so many drummers (it is normally too expensive to hire so many musicians).

Other components of the event began to fall into place. Ultra-hip air conditioned Supper Club in Venice donated their space and friends began asking what they could do to help. We created a website and I was invited to talk about the event on KPFK’s Afrodicia. Emails came in with offers to donate items to the silent auction. One mother from New Jersey found out about Drums To Beat Malaria and asked if it would be OK if she requested donations in lieu of presents for her son’s seventh birthday party. I got news from the Senegalese Association that because the event was taking place during Ramadan, the turnout among the Senegalese community would not be as high I had hoped (Muslims are not supposed to play music or dance during Ramadan).

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(You can still donate online at www.drumstobeatmalaria.org.) How a drumming party in LA brought life-saving anti-malaria nets to Africa. Most of... more