Princess Máxima closes the Glass House

At 7 p.m., Princess Máxima locked the door of the Glass House that she had opened for Serious Request which was held for the sixth time, this year at the market square in Groningen. Serious Request is radio 3FM's annual charity campaign. DJs spend six days in a glass house without food, play requests for a fee and people can give the money they collect running their own campaigns to the DJs – and it all goes to the cause being promoted. This year's cause was malaria.

The three DJs are Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Annemieke Schollaardt. They're allowed to drink but not eat. Until Christmas Eve, on Thursday 24 December, they will broadcast around the clock from a temporary radio studio, the Glass House. They will be visited by various guests, who will even spend the night there. A number of Dutch celebrities will do all kinds of odd jobs for a fee that will go to the cause.

The songs that Princess Máxima requested during the opening were by Anouk and Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry. In Senegal, Malaria No More America is working with Youssou N'Dour on the Senegal Surround Sound campaign, which focuses on malaria. Youssou recorded the song 'Xeex Sibiru' together with Souleymane Faye, Pope Diouf, Viviane, Ndèye Mary Ndiaye Gawlo and Mbaye Ndiaye specially for this campaign, which started in mid-June 2009 with a concert in Senegal.

Malaria No More! Netherlands is really pleased that malaria has been chosen as this year's theme for Serious Request. Serious Request is extremely popular and will boost awareness for malaria among the Dutch. It's also great for the fight against malaria because the money that is collected will go towards malaria projects run by the Red Cross. The proceeds of last year’s campaign reached a total of €5.6 million and we're hoping to match that amount this year. Malaria No More! Netherlands and the Red Cross are not strangers: we're supporting one of the Red Cross's malaria projects in Malawi.

Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and Kenya

Several radio stations in different countries are following Serious Request's example and running similar campaigns.

In Belgium, three DJs from Studio Brussel will broadcast Music for Life around the clock for a good cause from 18 to 24 December.
In Switzerland, the door to the Glass House at Bundesplatz in Bern was locked on 14 December, where DJs from radio station DRS 3 campaigned for the first time for malaria with Jeder Rappen Zählt.
In Sweden, Alice Cooper kicked off Musikhjälpen in Gothenburg by locking the door to the radio station P3. This is the second time Sweden is running a campaign, which will go on until 20 December.
People are familiar with Serious Request even in Africa. In Kenya, DJs from Ghetto Radio will be locked up in a Glass House in Nairobi from 18 to 24 December where they will be running their second Serious Request campaign.

Long-term attention

Making malaria the theme of Serious Request in the Netherlands and Kenya, Musikhjälpen in Sweden, Music for Life in Belgium and Jeder Rappen Zählt in Switzerland, was a great way of raising awareness for malaria in Europe. The money that will be put towards preventing and eradicating malaria will save a lot of lives.

These year-end campaigns may all be over in a week, but malaria will continue to wreak havoc and affect millions of lives. Malaria No More! Netherlands is committed to fighting malaria and is working with a number of Dutch and African organizations to get the disease under control. We hope that Serious Request has helped draw your attention to the disease and that we will be able to count on your help to eradicate it. Even after Serious Request, we have a long way to go to rid the world of malaria.