A multi-faith programme to help combat one of Africa's biggest killers is under way in Leicester.

People of various religions were at the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's Faiths Act Fellowship in the city last night at St Philip's Church.

The foundation hopes to put together a young team of volunteers based in the city to help in the global fight to reduce the number of deaths by malaria.

Michael Tweed, Sean Rose and Bilal Hassam have been chosen as fellows for the project and will work with community groups in the city over the next eight months.

They arrived in the city at the beginning of the month after a fact-finding tour of Malawi.

Mr Tweed said: "We were able to see the problems when we went over there. We need to try and do something about it. We hope to raise awareness and resources to battle malaria."