Last Friday, we wore our pyjamas to work.
You may be forgiven for imagining this is just one step further down the slippery slope of sartorial inelegance caused by working in a “creative” environment – but this time we had an excuse.
Friday, 25 April, was World Malaria Day, a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative to raise awareness of malaria and aid efforts to control and eliminate this disease.
According to WHO, Malaria kills an estimated 627 000 people every year, mainly children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa.
As part of creating African solutions to African problems, a team of African entrepreneurs has created Goodbye Malaria, an initiative to enable Africans to raise funds and advocate against malaria, while creating employment across the continent.
Goodbye Malaria has created local employment through the production of “shweshwe pyjamas”, which are being sold via www.goodbyemalaria.com and are available in orange, brown and red for only R350. Fifty percent of the proceeds of these sales support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
So on this year’s World Malaria Day, Flow Communications staff did their normal daily duties in their “sleep”, parting support of the efforts to wave goodbye to malaria.
Says Robert Brozin, founder of Goodbye Malaria: “We hope that other people and companies will follow Flow’s lead, and support Goodbye Malaria while also looking cool.”
Flowstars showed up to work in all kinds of sleepwear – nightgowns, pyjamas, onesies and slippers – all hoping to save a life in their sleep.
“Considering that I lived in Malawi for five years and have also had malaria a couple of times, creating awareness about malaria is something close to my heart,” says Zintle Mtyeku.
“So if a simple thing like putting on a pair of my pyjamas helps this cause, it's a small ask which we can all do and it's something I am happy to take part in.”
“I thought the initiative was an awesome idea. Wearing PJs to work can definitely create some sort of confusion and excitement. I love my PJs,” says Nicole Walters, who participated in her warm and fuzzy onesie.
The objective had been to create awareness – and that it did.
“I had no idea what Malaria Day was all about, but I am happy to say that I read up about it and even shared the information with a couple of friends,” adds Nicole.
It was comfortable office day and with everyone in their pyjamas, daily duties continued and the objective of creating awareness and taking control of eliminating malaria was met.
The Goodbye Malaria pyjamas can be ordered by emailing [email protected].