Members of faith groups from around the world, including representatives from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, are coordinating efforts to slow the spread of and eventually eradicate malaria.

The One World Against Malaria Summit met April 24 in Washington, D.C. to discuss methods of partnering with government organizations and also between various faith communities.

During the summit, a group of Muslim and Christian leaders announced the Nigerian Interfaith Action Association against malaria, a cooperative of anti-malaria efforts between the faith groups located in the country.

Adventist Church leaders in Nigeria said they enthusiastically support the interfaith relief work.

"Many are dying daily in Nigeria through malaria," said Joseph Ola, president for the church in the northwestern region of the country. "Once we pass the education to our people, they will spread it urgently to all cities, town and villages."

"I am here today to say malaria is a scourge we will end," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Rice told the gathering of UN officials, global faith leaders, a star musician and malaria experts at the launch of a UN report and new faith-based campaign to wipe out the disease that claims the lives of 3,000 African children a day.

"President Obama is committed to making the United States [of America] a global leader in ending deaths from malaria by 2015," Rice said to applause. "If we continue to work in the spirit of unity and shared purpose that has already led to substantial progress, this is a target we can hit."

In a statement issued by the White House, Obama hailed the "great strides" that have been made in "addressing this preventable and treatable illness."

The vast majority of malaria victims are in Africa, and most are children who die before their fifth birthday, Ann Veneman, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the conference, as she presented a report on how the battle against malaria is being won.

"In 10 African countries, an estimated 125,000 malaria deaths have been prevented from 2001 to 2007 through increased use of insecticide-treated nets," said Veneman.

Although deaths from malaria have been halted in places like North America and Europe, the mosquito-borne disease still claims the lives of nearly one million people a year.

Religious leaders added that faith organizations are in a unique position to aid the work.

Faith-based organizations are more effective in bringing about the social change that is necessary if the fight against malaria is to succeed, said Ed Scott, founder and chairman of the Center for Inter-Faith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA).

"Malaria is something we must respond to together, and we can defeat it in a joint effort," said Rajmund Dabrowski, communication director for the Adventist Church and representative at the summit. "The summit sounded a call to act and act together. As religious communities we have a network and an infrastructure to respond to common human needs like no other social system."

The Adventist Church is actively working to prevent malaria around the world. One project, Together Against Malaria (TAM), is an initiative of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Mozambique and the Inter-Religious Program Against Malaria. Launched in 2007, the initiative has helped provide malaria education to more than 1 million people and distributed 20,000 mosquito nets to high-risk groups.

The One World summit was organized by the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria and the Washington-based Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA).