Faiths Act

Of those who visit London from overseas, many are eager to visit the Royal sites such as Buckingham Palace in the vain hope that they might catch a glimpse of members of the royal family. I often have to explain to my friends who visit that the chances of actually seeing royalty up close are fairly slim! I’ve lived in the city for almost 25 years without so much as a peek.

So it was much to my surprise that upon setting out to visit London’s most iconic sites last week, I did in fact bump into none other than Her Royal Highness, the queen (excuse the pun) of royalty!

I say ‘bump into’ but what I really mean is that I stood squashed against a police rail in a crowd of eager citizens keen to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty the Queen as she was passing by in her horse and carriage on her way back from Parliament – hugely exciting though still.

Shortly after our sighting, we got chatting to a couple of American tourists who seemed very pleased to have gotten a glimpse of Her Majesty: “We’re here for the week so maybe we’ll catch her again”, they said. Catch her again you say? Good luck with that!

Fortunately, it was not just the Queen who was turning heads that day as there were a couple of Faiths Act Fellows in the vicinity causing a stir...

The background to the story:

In February, Faiths Act launched its ‘Where’s the Net?’ campaign, a global initiative aimed at raising awareness about malaria across the world. Since then, symbolic anti-malarial bed net displays have been passing from community to community worldwide.

The net’s journey and its stops along the way have been spotlighting people of diverse faiths and cultures uniting to take action to end deaths from malaria.

Last week the Faiths Act symbolic bed net arrived in London, home of 8 of the 34 Faiths Act Fellows.

As Faiths Act Fellows we were charged with getting the net out and about to attract attention for the Where's the Net? malaria awareness campaign and we thought, where better to start the net’s journey in our glorious city than with its famous historical sites and top tourist attractions?

So from the London Eye, to Big Ben, to Trafalgar Square and to those famous red telephone boxes, we traipsed the net through the city asking curious tourist and passers-by to join us.

Along the way we captured stories, messages of support and pictures from well-meaning strangers who were keen to back the message behind the net. From a Jack Sparrow look-a-like, to a bag-pipe player in his kilt, to a man dressed up as a skeleton, we trudged through the city spreading the message of malaria awareness with all whom we encountered.

The good news is that you don’t need to visit London, or the Queen, to make a difference. Everyone in the world can take part in the Where's the Net Campaign and you can help to donate life-saving bed nets with just a click.

For every 10 new people following the Net's journey on Faith Act’s social media threads, Sumitomo Chemical will donate a mosquito net to Malaria No More UK to help prevent malaria.

To donate a net with a click - follow the Net’s journey on Facebook, Twitter or email and help save lives:
Like on Facebook: www.facebook.org/faithsact
Follow on Twitter: @TonyBlair_tbff
Sign up over Email: http://www.faithsact.org/user/subscribe