WEST PALM BEACH, FL (www.hedgeco.net) –  Lance Laifer, a US businessman with affiliation to the US Hedge fund industry, once saw a program on the Charlie Rose show and heard a UN advisor, Dr.Jeffrey Sachs discussing the menace of malaria in Africa.  According to the program, about 5,000 African kids die every day from malaria.  Laifer and two others, Doug Hirsch of SenecaCapital and Dan Nir of Gracie Capital, decided that something should be done about it. They decided to organize a conference of Hedge Fund industry participants to try to do something about suchproblem.

The conference to be hosted in New York will be addressed by Reed Kramer an executive of the AllAfrica Company. Organizers of the conference hope to attract hundreds of hedge fund industry executives with the hope of raising funds to tackle the malaria infection in Africa. While answering a question on his motives for organizing the conference, Laifer said, “Most of us involved in this effort were shocked to learn that malaria is still killing people today. Personally, I thought malaria was eliminated years ago. Few of us knew this disease is killing so many people every year, most of them in Africa, and those among us with some awareness of the disease had no idea we could do something about it.”

On why the hedge fund industry got involved with this cause, Laifer said, “The people in the hedge-fund community are very good at investing money, and they’re also good at getting publicity. Everybody seems to want to write stories about hedge funds.”  He added, “If some of the attention focused on hedge funds could get focused on malaria, that would be a huge plus for the children of Africa, in a real life-and-death way. There is more media attention focused on hedge funds than there is on malaria in Africa. That’s a sad commentary on the world.”

 The initial approach according to Laifer is to export bednets to Africa because there are not enough of the nets. He further said this was the starting point, and the program will also include other strategies once it takes off the ground. Laifer explained, “Imagine a village with 150 households and assume six persons per household. Bednet technology has developed – the chemically treated, long-lasting bednets are effective, and they last five or six years. Start off there, with bednets, window curtains, something to hang on the door.” Hedge funds have increasingly been drawn to philanthropic causes around the world; the fight against malaria is obviously an important addition.

Paul Oranika
Contributing Writer
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net

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