Every 30 seconds, a child in Africa dies from malaria.
Members of UNMC’s Student Alliance for Global Health (SAGH) want to change that.
This summer the group applied for and received a $500 grant from The People Speak and Americans for Informed Democracy.
The two non-profit, global awareness organizations sponsored a contest for college students to compete for funds by coming up with an innovative campus fund raising event.
The UNMC SAGH group was one of 12 finalists selected to receive funding.
Beginning Friday and running for the following two weeks, SAGH will conduct its “Buzz Cut” contest, in which students, faculty and staff are encouraged to collect money to donate to a professor or student.
The professor or student who receives the most donations will get his or her hair buzzed.
At the end of the donation period, a celebration party will be held, at which time the winner will get a buzz cut.
The campus is invited to a meeting today at noon in the Durham Research Center Auditorium to learn which students and professors will be eligible to receive donations and, possibly, a new hairdo. Lunch will be served.
All proceeds from the fund raiser will go to the “Nothing But Nets” campaign, a United Nations Foundation initiative to send lifesaving, insecticide-treated bed nets to Africa.
For more information about the fund raiser, contact Sara Pirtle at 559-2924.