Footballers who want to give malaria a red card

The facts are shocking: Each year, between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria kill between one and three million people. Most of those are young children in sub-Saharan Africa. On Sunday, World Malaria Day, a special group will be trying to make people aware of the price the world's poor pay for the disease.

Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Kolo Touré are African, they're famous footballers and they have come together as part of the United Against Malaria campaign, which has the goal of eliminating the disease by 2015.

Canadian international footballer Dwayne de Rosario, who is part of the United Against Malaria campaign, hopes to use this summer's World Cup to help raise awareness of malaria. "Not only people here in North America, but all over the world, will now see the World Cup in Africa for the first time," de Rosario told Goal.com, "and people will gain more knowledge about how they can contribute to seeing the end of malaria by 2015."