Living Proof hit Strasbourg yesterday afternoon and never has so much been done in 4 hours!
First stop was the European Parliament’s Development Committee, where Bill Gates answered questions from Members of the European Parliament on everything from investing in agriculture, why child vaccines are good for climate change (they will help reduce population numbers as better life expectancy leads families to have less children) to programmes for hand washing to improve sanitation.
Watch the video of Bill’s presentation and the questions and answers here [click on the 'Language' link on the video to select your chosen language]:
Last night ONE hosted a Living Proof event in Paris event aimed at convincing French politicians that development is worth their investment, and that they should stick to their promise of reaching 0.7% of Gross National Income on development assistance by 2015.
Today, Bill Gates met up with local ONE members in Paris to help raise awareness for our Living Proof campaign through street art. ONE staffer Roxane Philson reports.
As a ONE member, you can never be sure what you’ll be doing in the name of fighting extreme poverty — it can have some funny twists. One day you might be calling your government to stop proposed budget cuts and the next you might be working with Bill Gates in Paris to promote action on vaccines. Ok, it doesn’t happen THAT often, but for a few of our French members today, that was their experience…
This post was adapted from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s blog, Foundation Notes.
My third annual letter came out recently. One of the major themes of the letter is the miracle of vaccines. Last year, Melinda and I announced that we were working together with partners to make this the Decade of Vaccines, and I wanted to use this year’s letter to explain why.
In particular, my letter focuses on the vaccine for polio, since it’s helped the world get to the threshold of something amazing: eradicating the disease altogether. We’re incredibly close and we need to finish the job.
We put together a video, called “Vaccines Save Lives,” to try to describe why vaccines are a miracle in a vivid way. I hope you enjoy it—and share it with your friends.
Each year, Bill Gates releases an annual letter on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to look back on progress made and lessons learned in his efforts to reduce extreme poverty and improve global health. These letters also seek to educate and inform the public on the effectiveness and importance of smart foreign aid and look ahead to the future.
This year, the focus is on vaccines — particularly the polio vaccine — as well as HIV/AIDS, malaria, agriculture and education. You can download an electronic copy on the Gates Foundation website, but to get you started, here’s a list of important points Gates makes in his letter:
1. Until polio is wiped out completely, the disease is still very much alive. The money that we will save by eradication will far exceed what we are spending on efforts now — it could save the world up to $50 billion over the next 25 years!
2. Vaccines are the most effective and cost-effective health tool invented. If we simply scale up existing vaccines in the five countries with the highest child mortality, we could save 3 million lives (not to mention more than $2.9 billion in treatment costs alone) over the next decade.
3. The fight against malaria is making huge strides. Of the 99 countries with the disease, 43 have decreased cases of the disease by more than 50 percent!
4. Bed nets can have a huge impact on the fight against malaria. Many amazing grassroots groups are helping by delivering bed nets. The Nothing But Nets campaign has recruited hundreds of thousands of individuals, as well as organizations like the United Methodist Church and National Basketball Association involved in the fight against malaria.
5. Neonatal deaths can be reduced by over 50 percent by increasing the number of births done by a skilled provider in a clinic and educating mothers on sanitary measures and proper child nutrition.
6. Although progress continues, the pace is still slow in fighting the AIDS epidemic. There are two fronts of this war that need to be tackled: treating those already infected and preventing new infections.
7. More attention needs to be given to agricultural development, since most poor people in the world feed their families and earn their living from farming. It has been proven that when farmers increase productivity, nutrition improves and hunger and poverty are reduced.
As Gates rightfully states, “Securing the conditions that will lead to a healthy, prosperous future for everyone is a goal I believe we all share.” We’re excited for the great strides The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will make in 2011!
Child vaccines got a double dose of comedy last night when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert interviewed Bill Gates and Dr. Paul Offit on their back-to-back shows. In the first interview, Stewart talked to Gates about the value of investments in vaccines, and focused in on the fight to eradicate polio:
A half hour later, Colbert interviewed Dr. Paul Offit, who some of you might remember from a great video from our Living Proof campaign. He’s the Philadelphia-based doctor and researcher who helped to develop a landmark new vaccine to fight rotavirus (diarrhea) — one of the top killers of kids around the developing world. He talks about why vaccinating kids in the US and around the world is so important, and reassures Steven (and viewers) that there is no link between vaccines and autism:
There’s nothing funny about millions of kids dying around the world each year from vaccine-preventable diseases, but we’re psyched to see the impact of vaccines get such mainstream coverage. Please share the links with your friends!
Earlier this year, Bill and Melinda Gates transferred their Living Proof campaign, an effort that highlights the positive impact of developmental assistance, to ONE. To celebrate this move — as well as thank the UK government for its commitment to foreign aid — the Gates, along with Global Fund Deputy Executive Director Dr. Debrewerk Zewdie, gave a very special presentation tonight on something we don’t hear too often: success stories in the fight against global poverty.
Bill and Melinda touched upon several issues during their presentation, including agriculture, immunization, GAVI and corruption. No matter the subject, there was one thing in common — they had hard facts to prove that these issues were getting better for millions of people in the poorest places in the world. TB deaths, for example, are declining globally, down from 1.8 million deaths in 2007 to 1.3 million in 2008. Nearly 4 million Africans have been placed on treatment for AIDS since 2002. And 98 million less people are going hungry in 2010 compared to in 2009. These things could not have been done without the assistance of foreign aid. “When money is spent wisely…it builds prosperous societies,” said Melinda.
Dr. Zewdie’s talk focused on breaking the three most common misconceptions of aid. “As an African, I can tell you that the people who receive aid are the first ones to strive for sustainability,” she said.
The bottom line of the event? Investments in global health and development are saving lives, improving livelihoods and building prosperous societies — but in order to understand that, people need to talk about all the progress that we’ve made in the developing world. If Bill and Melinda can do it, you can too.
Check out videos and photos on our new Living Proof page and watch a rerun of our webcast on our Livestream page or in the video above. And of course, let us know what you thought of the event in the comments below!
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
