David Beckham, former captain of the English national football team, today joined Malaria No More, a United Kingdom-based organisation to launch the world’s first voice petition to end malaria with the campaign Malaria Must Die, So Millions Can Live.
In a short film using emerging AI video synthesis technology, the petition reveals David Beckham speaking nine languages – calling on people to join the campaign and demand action by visiting malariamustdie.com. The petition aims to get the attention of world leaders ahead of critical funding decisions for the Global Fund, to tackle malaria in six months’ time.
Through Beckham, eight malaria survivors including Dr. Elvis Eze, Marie Murorunkwere, Hussein Omar and Jean Bosco Niyonzima, are using their stories to help raise awareness about malaria’s devastating effects.
The film opens with Beckham speaking in English, but changes as he begins to speak fluently in Spanish, Kinyarwanda, Arabic, French, Hindi, Mandarin, Kiswahili and Yoruba – each language representing a part of the world affected by malaria.