I headed down to LA Live on Friday night for a very important night celebrating and spreading the word for the cause Malaria No More.  This was one of those night where the soccer community got to get together for something that transcends the game. With the worlds attention getting set to be on South Africa over the next year, there is a major opportunity to get involved and help get rid of something terrible that is also very preventable.

Here are some astonishing facts about malaria:

Worldwide, malaria causes almost 250 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually.

Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills an African child every 30 seconds.

Annual economic loss in Africa due to malaria is estimated to be $12 billion, representing a crippling 1.3 percent annual loss in GDP growth in endemic countries.

Malaria kills more than 3,000 children worldwide everyday

With this in mind, there were a lot of folks in attendance, Landon, Tim Leiweke, Don Garber and Joan Laporta, who were committing to being ambassadors to help combat the disease.  If you want to get involve, please click here for more information.

With their motto of being “more than a club”, Barcelona president Joan Laporta was on hand to commit Barcelona to helping the fight against Malaria.

The commish Don Garber was on hand and he is prepared for MLS to step up and help make a difference in the fight against malaria.

AEG boss man Tim Leiweke on hand to commit to the cause as well.

Landon talked about how eye opening it was when the US was recently in South Africa and a shocking statistic about how many people die from malaria in the 90 minutes it takes to play a soccer game. I had a chance to catch up with Landon and he is excited about the chance to step up and be an ambassador to help fight this disease.

Landon is presented with a Barcelona jersey from Joan Laporta with his name on the back. That’s gotta be a great feeling!

Malaria No More CEO Scott Case gave a passionate speech about the need to get involved and help fight this preventable disease.

Scott Case, Don Garber and Tim Leiweke

Take some time and read up about Malaria No More and their efforts to make this world a better place.  And finally, thanks to Emily for all of her help with everything!