Yoruba language is quite popular in the world, ask around. And now, Manchester United legend David Beckham has used the Nigerian language to help spread an important message to Nigerians and billions more around the world in a campaign he just started.

Beckham, who was among the famous ‘Class of ’92’ that formed the core of the Red Devils team that dominated the Premier League in the ’90s as well as made a mark in Europe, launched the world’s first ever voice petition to end malaria in which he has encouraged people to say ‘Malaria Must Die’.

“Malaria isn’t just any disease. It’s the deadliest disease ever been,” said Beckham in the clip. The former England midfielder went on to deliver the rest of his message in other languages with the aid of state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence video synthesis.

“It is said to have killed half of the people that have ever lived and it still kills a child every two minutes. We can end it. we have the knowledge and the opportunity. We just need more action, we need to make the world’s leaders pay attention…” Beckham added.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiiSAvKJIHo


It is understood that the message was delivered in this manner to buttress the point of malaria being a global problem which the world must stand up to fight in order to prevent the dangerous disease from getting the better of humanity.

In statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria kills around 435,000 people a year, largely in Africa, with children aged under five making up 61 percent of deaths.

In its latest “World Malaria” report, the WHO estimated there were 219 million cases of malaria in 2017, up from 217 million in 2016, and warned the global response had stalled despite a United Nations’ global goal to end the disease by 2030.

Beckham, who is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States and France, has been involved in other campaigns with global organisations previously.

He has been a UNICEF UK ambassador since 2005, and in 2015 he launched 7: The David Beckham UNICEF Fund. Then in 2014, Major League Soccer announced that Beckham and a group of investors would own an Inter Miami CF, which will begin competing in 2020.