By John Joseph
LONDON (Reuters) -
The British entrepreneur who sold a
soccer Web site at the age of 17 for $40 million has switched
his attention to help launch a social networking site on Sunday
designed to fight malaria.
Tom Hadfield set up Soccer.net in his bedroom before
selling it to U.S. sports network ESPN, but now hopes the power
of sites such as Facebook can curb a disease that kills an
estimated one million people a year, many of them in Africa.
"I believe in the power of friends telling friends telling
friends," self-styled part-time student and full-time
entrepreneur Hadfield told Reuters in an interview.
"Our dream is tens of thousands of people will use social
networking tools to build a movement that eradicates malaria."
Now 25 and a fourth-year political science student at
Harvard university, Hadfield came up with the idea for
www.MalariaEngage.org after a trip to Zambia last summer that
gave him a close-up look at the mosquito-born disease.
"Traveling across Africa and seeing the devastation caused
by malaria made me realize there was more to life than putting
up soccer scores," said Hadfield.
"Everyone I met at an aid project making mosquito nets in
Zambia had either lost a child to malaria or knew someone who
had."
Hadfield then traveled to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where
he met researchers working on malaria treatments and discovered
that their efforts were being held back by a lack of resources.
"It's shocking that thousands of people are dying every day
from a preventable disease," said Hadfield, who was honored as
Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, in 2001.
"When I came back from Africa last summer, a lot of people
asked me what they can do to help."
The site encourages people to donate $10 or more to help
support seven different research projects in Tanzania, such as
developing plants like lemongrass to repel mosquitoes. But
Hadfield sees MalariaEngage.org as more than a fundraising
tool.
"MalariaEngage.org increases the return on investment of
donors by connecting them directly with researchers working on
malaria prevention treatment," said Hadfield.
The seven projects were recommended by Tanzania's National
Institute for Medical Research and once those have been funded,
MalariaEngage.org will look to support new schemes across
developing countries.
Due to marry in November, Hadfield co-founded the site with
health professors Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar at
Canada's McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health at
University Health Network as well as the University of Toronto.
"We feel young African scientists have very good ideas that
end up in the dustbin," said Singer. "This is about helping
committed young researchers with good ideas to help themselves
create a better future."
(Reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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