Malaria – a disease carried via mosquitoes – causes 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Cover Africa, a campus student organization that works to raise malaria awareness, hosted its bi-annual concert on Oct. 28 at the Nines.

“Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria,” read one of the many signs lining the path across the Arts Quad. A bed net, used to prevent mosquito bites, hung from a nearby tree. And a conspicuous white tent was erected close by.

All these were put up by Cover Africa for the group’s 28-hour sleep-out on the Arts Quad. The socially conscious sleepover, the fourth since its inception in Dec. 2006, aims to raise both funds for and awareness about the malaria epidemic in Africa.

“The sleep-out is symbolic because malaria spreads at night — when people are sleeping,” said Ojus Patil ’11, treasurer of Cover Africa.