Bill Gates Releases Third Annual Letter, Calling for Sustained Foreign Aid to Boost Global Health and Development

Speaking at Historic Roosevelt House, Gates Outlines Why the World Should Prioritize Vaccines and the Eradication of Polio

NEW YORK, January 31, 2011 – Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, argues the case for polio eradication and expanded childhood immunization in his third annual letter released today. The letter, a personal account of his priorities, also calls on governments to invest in foreign aid, even in the face of a tough economic climate.

“If societies can’t provide for people’s basic health, if they can’t feed and educate people, then their populations and problems will grow and the world will be a less stable place,” Gates writes in the letter. “Whether you believe it a moral imperative or in the rich world’s enlightened self-interest, securing the conditions that will lead to a healthy, prosperous future for everyone is a goal I believe we all share.”

Gates also emphasizes the need to continue improving U.S. schools, and urges more leadership, innovation and investment for issues like maternal and child health, malaria, HIV/AIDS and agriculture.

Gates focuses on polio eradication as a key example of the value of vaccines. Thanks to a global childhood immunization campaign, polio has been reduced 99 percent, and is on the threshold of becoming only the second disease ever eradicated.

“Getting rid of polio will mean that no child will be paralyzed or die by this disease,” said Gates. “Any major advance in the human condition requires resolve and courageous leadership. We are so close, but we have to finish the last leg of the journey.”

New donations to polio were announced last week from the U.K. government and from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, which will reduce the gap of $720 million that is needed to fully fund polio eradication efforts through mid-2012. A recent study estimated that eradication could save the world up to $50 billion due to reduced treatment costs and gains in productivity.

Gates released his letter with a speech at the historic Roosevelt House, the former New York home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where the future president recuperated after being stricken with polio at age 39. Roosevelt and his law partner Basil O’Conner later launched the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, whose March of Dimes campaign mobilized the country against polio and raised millions of dollars to support the search for an effective vaccine.

Polio once threatened children worldwide, but there are now just four countries where polio has never stopped circulating – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Last year saw remarkable progress in Nigeria and India, where polio cases dropped by about 95 percent compared to 2009. But even a few isolated cases can cross borders and spark an outbreak.

Gates emphasizes that achieving polio eradication would energize the global health field by showing the real impact of health investments – particularly investments in vaccines. Last year, Gates called for the next 10 years to be the Decade of Vaccines, a vision of a world ten years from now where the global health community has come together to deliver life-saving vaccines to every child who needs them, and to invest in vaccines that don’t yet exist.

“Not everyone can go into the field, or even donate. But every one of us can be an advocate for people whose voices are often not heard,” Gates writes. “I encourage everyone to get involved in working for solutions to the challenges those people face. It will draw you in for life.”

About the Annual Letter

• Bill Gates’ 2011 annual letter can be found at: www.gatesfoundation.org/annualletter
• A live webcast of the “Polio Eradication and the Power of Vaccines” event on January 31, 2011 can be viewed at: www.gatesfoundation.org at 9:30 am ET / 6:30 am PT

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Learn more at www.gatesfoundation.org or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Live Bill Gates Webcast on Polio & Vaccines -- Mon, 1/31 at 9:30 AM EST

Please remember to tune in for a special webcast featuring Bill Gates, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Oshinsky, and a panel of experts on:

Polio Eradication and the Power of Vaccines

Monday, January 31, 9:30 a.m. ET at www.gatesfoundation.org

To launch Bill Gates’ 3rd annual letter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites you to join a conversation about the extraordinary progress in the fight to eradicate polio and the enormous lifesaving potential of vaccines.

Thanks to a global childhood immunization effort, polio has been reduced by 99% and we are on the cusp of eradicating only the second disease in history. This presents a powerful case for the value of vaccines.

Unique Perspectives
Bill Gates will join global leaders to discuss what the past can teach us about protecting children around the world from polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. The event will be moderated by ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, and speakers include:

• Dr. David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, “Polio: An American Story”
• Professor Helen Rees, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Chair, WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization
• Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Executive Vice President, Sabin Vaccine Institute

Panelists will discuss why now is the time to rid the world of polio and ensure all children have access to lifesaving vaccines. No child deserves to face the threat of preventable disease, whether it’s polio, measles, or pneumonia.

To watch the live webcast, please visit www.gatesfoundation.org on Monday, January 31 at 9:30 a.m. ET. It will also be available on demand following the event.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Desmond Tutu on Homophobia in Africa

http://www.africaso.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151%3Adesmond-tutu-on-homophobia-in-africa&catid=39%3Aarchived-news

Desmond Tutu on homophobia in Africa

*In Africa, a step backward on human rights*

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South
Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity. It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi. These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa. Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear. And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay
ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

"But they are sinners," I can hear the preachers and politicians say. "They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished." My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And do any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

The writer is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.


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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

UK Government and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new commitment to eradicating polio

UK Government and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new commitment to eradicating polio

Citing dramatic gains achieved with polio vaccines, Prime Minister David Cameron, Bill and Melinda Gates call on world leaders to finish the job

DAVOS, Switzerland – British Prime Minister David Cameron said today that the United Kingdom would double its current contribution to polio eradication.

Mr Cameron called on other donors to back the Global Polio Eradication Initiative as he announced the UK’s commitment that will see an extra 45 million children fully vaccinated against the disease.

In 20 years, polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent and the disease is now close to being only the second in history – after smallpox – to be wiped out. In 2010, India and Nigeria – historically the toughest challenges to eradication – cut cases by 95 percent each. However, today polio still exists in more than a dozen countries, crippling and killing children.

Prime Minister Cameron said: "I passionately believe that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rid the world of the evil of polio. We have the vaccines and the tools to do it. All that’s missing is real and sustained political will to see this effort through to the end.

“That’s why I’m announcing today that the UK is prepared to fully vaccinate an additional 45 million children against polio, through a doubling of our support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative over the next two years.

“In return for that commitment, we ask other donors to do their bit, and affected countries to strengthen their routine immunisation programmes.

“We have come so far in eradicating polio. We are so close to delivering a polio-free world for all our children. Let’s finish the job. And let’s eradicate polio once-and-for-all.”

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed an additional $102 million to support efforts to stamp out the disease.

“Eliminating the last one percent of polio requires the kind of political leadership shown by the UK government and Prime Minister Cameron today,” Gates said. “Eradicating polio requires innovative thinking and political will, as well as funding from a range of donors, to support an aggressive program that will get the job done.”

Andrew Mitchell, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, said:

“Britain is at the forefront of the fight against polio. We have already provided funding for 1.2 billion doses of polio vaccine for children over the past two years and our increased commitment means many millions more will be protected from this terrible disease.

“The ultimate goal of full eradication can only be achieved if other countries and organisations play their part and release funds."

Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, which leads the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), joined the Prime Minister and Mr Gates for the announcement.

“These new investments come at a critical time in the fight against polio,” said Dr Chan. “We have a window of opportunity now, with cases at an all time low. But if there is polio anywhere we are at risk of polio everywhere. Only eradication will ensure that polio does not reemerge as a global threat.”

The new funds from the UK, as well as support announced from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi this week, will help fill a funding gap of $720 million.

Polio remains endemic in four countries – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan – and there were outbreaks of the disease last year in Angola, DRC and Tajikistan.

The new funding will help the GPEI purchase vaccines and conduct immunization activities. In the next two years, more than three billion doses of oral polio vaccine will be needed to immunize young children. Funding is also required for activities such as surveillance and technical assistance. Polio eradication staff are now the single largest source of technical assistance for immunization in low-income countries. The program will also allocate new funds for emergency response efforts in areas like Republic of Congo, which recently have experienced large outbreaks of the virus.

Last year at the World Economic Forum, Bill and Melinda Gates called for the next 10 years to be the Decade of Vaccines. The vision is a world 10 years from now where the global health community has come together to deliver life-saving vaccines to every child who needs them, and to invest in vaccines that don’t yet exist.

This first year has seen remarkable success:

• A new meningitis vaccine launched in Burkina Faso
• GAVI’s Advance Market Commitment mechanism to fund pneumococcal vaccine delivery in Latin America and Africa
• Unprecedented reductions in polio in Nigeria (down to 19 cases from 388 in 2009, and India (41 cases vs 741 in 2009)
• Significant progress in developing a viable malaria vaccine.

Vaccine partners from across the world are coming together to define a Global Vaccine Action Plan to guide the discovery, development and delivery of lifesaving vaccines over the next decade.

About the UK Polio Announcement at Davos January 2011

Subject to two conditions, the UK will double its support to GPEI over the next two years (to £40m annually) which will help fully vaccinate an additional 45m children. The two conditions will apply only to the additional £20m each year:

• first, that this additional support is underpinned by increased commitment to strengthen routine immunisation. Routine, country based immunisation programmes are vital to ensuring that polio eradication can be maintained in the future. Countries need to make national health systems capacity a priority now if we expect to maintain eradication in the future.
• second, that our support has the additional effect of leveraging more effort from others in order to broaden and deepen funding through a matching fund basis.
• How will the matching basis work? For every $5 pledged by others from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012, the UK will increase its support by $1 up to a maximum of the additional £40m announced.

The UK’s challenge aims to help GPEI expand the donor base and strengthen sustainable funding options going into the future and creates an opportunity for others to get involved.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Learn more at www.gatesfoundation.org

About the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.

The US Government, Rotary International, the Government of India, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Government are the main funders of GPEI.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Oxfam's Statement on David Kato

Oxfam is shocked and saddened by the killing of David Kato. Oxfam worked closely with David on raising awareness of the discrimination that sexual minority groups face in Africa and their lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, including treatment for HIV/AIDS. He was a tireless campaigner for the rights of minority groups and he will be much missed. While the motive for his killing is not yet confirmed, Oxfam is very concerned about the rise in threats and hate speech against homosexuals in many parts of Africa, and we urge the Ugandan government to protect the human rights of minority groups.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Council on Foreign Relations State of the Union Resources

I write to share with you new analysis of President Obama's State of the Union address by three Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) experts.

First, Senior Vice President and Director of Studies James Lindsay, and Director of CFR's Center for Geoeconomic Studies Sebastian Mallaby react to the foreign policy and geoeconomic themes of the President’s address, respectively, in a new Expert Roundup.

Lindsay writes, “President Barack Obama's State of the Union address confirmed what everyone suspected in the wake of the GOP rout in the November 2 midterm elections: foreign policy will play second fiddle to domestic policy when the administration talks about its agenda in the year to come. The mantra going forward will be opportunities, jobs, and growth, not threats, war, and diplomacy.”

On economics, Mallaby writes, “If Obama sees entitlement reform as politically impossible, he must choose between public investment and deficit reduction. His speech sounded far more enthusiastic about the investments, but the deficit should come first.”

Read the full analysis at: http://www.cfr.org/publication/23887.

Stay tuned to Lindsay's blog, "The Water's Edge," for more analysis: . There, you can also read Lindsay’s preview of the speech published earlier today.

Second, CFR’s energy expert Michael Levi reacts to the President’s new goal of generating 80% of America’s electricity from clean sources by 2035. Levi writes: “The big question, of course, is whether this Congress is willing to put in place the incentives that will be needed to meet this objective. I very strongly doubt it. But that does not make it unwise to start having a conversation about how to reach this goal.”

View the full blog post and further analysis at: http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/. Levi can be reached via Twitter at @levi_m.


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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Special Webcast on Polio

Please tune in for a special webcast featuring Bill Gates, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Oshinsky, and a panel of experts on:

Polio Eradication and the Power of Vaccines

Monday, January 31, 9:30 a.m. ET at www.gatesfoundation.org

To launch Bill Gates’ 3rd annual letter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites you to join a conversation about the extraordinary progress in the fight to eradicate polio and the enormous lifesaving potential of vaccines.

Thanks to a global childhood immunization effort, polio has been reduced by 99% and we are on the cusp of eradicating only the second disease in history. This presents a powerful case for the value of vaccines.

Unique Perspectives
Bill Gates will join global leaders to discuss what the past can teach us about protecting children around the world from polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. The event will be moderated by ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, and speakers include:

• Dr. David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, “Polio: An American Story”
• Professor Helen Rees, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Chair, WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization
• Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Executive Vice President, Sabin Vaccine Institute

Panelists will discuss why now is the time to rid the world of polio and ensure all children have access to lifesaving vaccines. No child deserves to face the threat of preventable disease, whether it’s polio, measles, or pneumonia.

To watch the live webcast, please visit www.gatesfoundation.org <http://www.gatesfoundation.org> on Monday, January 31 at 9:30 a.m. ET. It will also be available on demand following the event.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Trickle Up Blog

I work with Trickle Up, an international non-profit organization dedicated to sustainable poverty alleviation. This week, we are excited to announce the unveiling of our blog, http://trickleupblog.wordpress.com/.

We created this blog with the spirit of open discourse in mind. We invite you to read, comment, and share what we are posting. The blog will be home to a variety of content, ranging from travel journals to videos to guest entries written by our partners and donors. Most importantly, it will be a forum where we can share with you the many voices and stories of the inspiring women we serve.

Please join us in our commitment to raising awareness for women living in extreme poverty. If you like what you read, please feel free to link to our blog on your website or add us to your blogroll, and partner with us to bring attention to these important issues.

On the blog, you can read Trickle Up’s president, Bill Abrams’ post chronicling his travels to Mali, West Africa, from meeting a local governor, to meeting Trickle Up participants, as well as his perspective on the future of the region.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Rural Development Institute Releases its 2010 Impact Report and Announces a New Name: Landesa

January 18, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Rena Singer

renas@landesa.org

tel: (206) 257-6136

The Rural Development Institute Releases its 2010 Impact Report and Announces a New Name: Landesa

SEATTLE – The Rural Development Institute (RDI), which partners with governments and local organizations to expand secure land rights for the rural poor, today released its 2010 Impact Report, which showed that 2.3 million farming families in China and 125,000 poor and landless families in India received ownerships or long-term rights to land, providing them with a foundation to escape poverty.

The nonprofit organization, which also announced it is changing its name to Landesa (lan DESS a), a name which links the ideals of “land” and “destiny,” said 2010 saw a dramatic increase in donor support, which allowed it to more than double its capacity and staff.

“Land rights are increasingly being recognized as a fundamental building block for alleviating extreme poverty,” said Tim Hanstad, Landesa’s president and CEO. “As our work and impact expands around the world, we knew this was the right time to adopt a name that better reflects our work.”

Founded in 1967 by University of Washington law professor Roy Prosterman, Landesa has been providing legal expertise, technical assistance, and evaluation capabilities to governments struggling to equip their poorest families with legal rights to their land for more than four decades. Landesa recognizes that a majority of the world’s poor share two traits: they depend on agriculture to survive, but lack secure rights to the land they till.

To date, more than 100 million families have gained legal rights to land through Landesa’s work.

Landesa now has more than 50 staff based in the organization’s Seattle headquarters, another 40 employees based in five offices in India, and an additional seven staff in Beijing.

In addition to its work in China and India, Landesa has also begun working on land rights programs in Uganda, Liberia and re-engaged in Rwanda. And in Russia last year, Landesa’s legal aid center helped more than 1,000 people with land tenure issues.

“We know from more than 40 years of field work that when a family has legal rights to the land they till, lives are transformed,” said Roy Prosterman, Landesa’s founder. “Ownership and property rights are fundamental to creating capital and growing economies. While our name is changing, our commitment and approach to helping to secure land rights for the world’s poorest remains constant.”

Landesa’s support from major donors has increased as more have recognized the power of land rights to break the poverty cycle. Nearly $20 million has been secured over the past two years alone from major foundations including Omidyar Network, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Nike.

Most recently, Google.org donated $750,000 to Landesa to help scale its global work.

The organization secured almost twice as much revenue in 2010 as it did in 2008.

“Like Landesa, we believe that improving land rights is critical to making inroads against extreme poverty,” said Matt Bannick, managing partner with Omidyar Network. “Many governments around the world agree. We’re proud to partner with Landesa as they help spur economic and social well-being.”

A key component of Landesa’s approach includes a concentrated focus on women to ensure legal rights to land are shared equally within their families. In 2009, RDI launched with Global Center for Women’s Land Rights, a first of its kind initiative to promote land ownership for women worldwide. This division is now called the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights.

To learn more about recent impact from Landesa’s work, read the 2010 Impact Report or visit Landesa.org. The Web site will feature blogs by Landesa’s land tenure experts on such timely topics as land grabbing in the developing world, and stabilizing Pakistan through broadening land ownership.

Please also note Landesa’s new Seattle office address:

1424 4^th Avenue

Suite 300

Seattle WA 98101

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Tanzania 2011 and Amani Kids

An announcement from one of the other TED 2010 fellows:

The Chain reaction project will be taking part in the annual Kili(MAN)jaro to raise funds and awareness for Amani Children's Home. Members will be doing all or part of the 3 stage race that entails summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro, a two day mountain bike race around Mt. Kilimanjaro and running a full marathon.

Money raised will go towards purchasing a larger farm for Amani Children's Home, allowing the orphanage -

- to grow enough maize and other crops to use throughout the year

- to raise animals (cows, goats, chickens) for food and extra income (selling eggs, chicks, etc.)

- to teach the children animal husbandry (an essential skill in Tanzania)

- to use as a transition home for older Amani youth who can learn to manage a small farm before going out on their own

Amani Kids (www.amanikids.org) is a shelter for street children in Africa. Meaning peace in Swahili, "Amani" Childrens Home is dedicated to the protection of Tanzania’s most vulnerable population: street children and AIDS orphans.

How to donate:

Online donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/tcrp.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Apply to be a 2011 TEDGlobal Fellow!

Apply to be a 2011 TEDGlobal Fellow!

Ever wanted to be a TED Fellow? Now’s your chance! The TED Fellows program is looking for 20 outstanding multidisciplinary innovators from around the world – techies, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, bloggers, filmmakers, musicians, activists, and more.

Apply today at www.ted.com/fellows/apply

Applications are open through March 11^th, 2011

About the TED Fellows program

The TED Fellows program is an international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world. Each year, organizers of the program select a group of 40 individuals who show world changing potential to participate in either the TED or TEDGlobal Conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 10 of these Fellows to participate in an extended two-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to five consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

The TED Fellows program focuses on attracting applicants living or working in five parts of the globe: the Asia/Pacific region, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration given to applicants from the rest of the world. (Applicants must be proficient in English.) The program seeks remarkable thinkers and doers who have shown usual accomplishment, exceptional courage, moral imagination and the potential to increase positive change in their respective fields. The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits.

As part for the Fellowship, TEDGlobal Fellows receive conference admission, round-trip transportation, and room and board for TEDGlobal 2011, July 11^th – 15^th, 2011. Fellows also participate in a two-day pre-conference where they can present a short talk about their work that may be considered for TED.com. Other benefits include elite skill-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities, and surprise extras.

For more information:

visit: www.ted.com/fellows

follow: @tedfellow

watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDFellowsTalks

join: http://www.facebook.com/TEDFellow

read: http://tedfellows.posterous.com

Note from Alanna: I'm a TED fellow, and it's been a great experience.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

NONIE conference 2011

Just a reminder that the deadline to submit your abstract for the NONIE conference 2011 in Paris is JANUARY, 31st.

The scope of the conference is the following:

• The match between interventions, questions and methods : how are questions translated into methods, how do different methods compare, which method should we favor under particular circumstances, how to combine methods?
• Where are we in terms of supply and demand of Impact Evaluations? with a special focus on Africa
• Institutional experience of Impact Evaluations : presentation of different perspectives on Impact evaluations from ODA organizations, evaluators’ networks, NGOs, Foundations and Research Centres
• Meta-analysis and systematic reviews of Impact Evaluations : methodology, examples and use
• Impact Evaluations utilization and their institutionalization for policy making.

For more information on the call for abstracts, click here.

Visit Impact Evaluation Social Network at: http://3ieimpact.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Wokai

Wokai, a Chinese microfinance charity, wants to know if they have gone too far in rewarding their supporters: http://bit.ly/gWFbww

My own feeling: I don't really care about the meaning of charity or the symbolism of rewarding supporters. I just want to know - is it cost effective? Does it work?


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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

A discussion with the President-elect of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara

The Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in collaboration with the National Democratic Institute and the Open Society Foundations, will be hosting, “A discussion with the President-elect of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara,” on Friday, January 14, 2011. A telephone link to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara and his government-in-waiting are confined, will allow the President-elect to address a public audience in Washington, D.C. His remarks will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Akwe Amosu, Director of African Advocacy at the Open Society Foundations, and Chris Fomunyoh, Senior Associate for Africa at the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

We wish to include you and your readers in this exciting event, as the stalemate continues between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and internationally-recognized President-elect Alassane Ouattara. We encourage you to post our live webcast on your blog for your readers to watch. The embed code is:

Additionally, the full video and audio will be available on our webpage following the event; we encourage you to post these to your blog as well. Please visit http://csis.org/event/discussion-president-elect-cote-divoire for more details and to obtain the multimedia following Friday’s event. Full details of our event are included below as well (all times are EDT).

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

One Day in Port-au-Prince: Coping with the quake

To mark the one year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, the Thomson Reuters Foundation has released “One Day in Port-au-Prince: Coping with the quake”, an interactive multimedia documentary that transports you to the streets and tent cities of Haiti's capital.

> Watch on AlertNet now.

It puts you in the shoes of 14 ordinary Haitians with remarkable stories of the earthquake and its aftermath. Each tells their stories in their own words. The incredible people featured include:

• Evelyne, a young mother forced into prostitution by the quake

• Max, the chief Voodoo priest who takes a stand against mass burials

• Chanata, a famous female footballer who fears her dreams of becoming a coach are over

Get involved with One Day in Port-au-Prince:

• Watch

• Share your Haiti story

• Send a message to the people featured

• Spread the word to your friends and colleagues

The documentary is part of Thomson Reuters Foundation’s “Haiti in Focus” campaign, bringing together free legal, humanitarian and media programmes to provide support for Haiti throughout 2011. The campaign underlines our long-term commitment to Haiti, which began right after the earthquake with the launch of an Emergency Information Service for the affected population.

One part of the Haiti in Focus programme will work to protect women and strengthen Haiti’s anti-rape laws; another will provide overseas secondments for young lawyers; a third involves training local journalists in how to hold aid agencies and donors up to scrutiny after disasters.

Find out more:

• Haiti in Focus

• One Day in Port-au-Prince

• Rape in the camps - video documentary

We welcome your feedback on all the projects at foundation@reuters.com

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

IMPACT Magazine from PSI

I’d like to introduce you to PSI and its signature magazine, IMPACT. PSI is a leading global health organization with programs targeting malaria, child survival, HIV and reproductive health. PSI works with the public and private sector to provide health products and clinical services to the world's most vulnerable populations.

IMPACT is distributed to government and foundation donors, thought leaders, key media and public health officials in more than 67 countries. IMPACT covers critical issues facing the global health community. In the latest issue, IMPACT features exclusive interviews with a diverse group of individuals including:

• Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson discusses how individuals can make a difference: “The world needs the continuous engagement of ‘ordinary’ individuals on the issues that matter to them.”
• Economist Nancy Birdsall discusses trends in spending levels and investments in health by developing country governments.
• Former President Jimmy Carter on child marriage: “We need to persuade them [leaders] that child marriage affects whole communities and the development of their countries. It needs to be discussed – respectfully, but openly.”

IMPACT also spotlights innovative programs around the world. This month we go in depth for a look at an initiative in Zimbabwe to promote male circumcision as a tool to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among the Muslim community. You can also read more about it at www.undispatch.org.

*********This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

The Office for Haiti

I've just been notified of the soft launch of The Office for Haiti.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

The TED fellows program

The TED Fellows program is an international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world. Each year, organizers of the program select a group of 40 individuals who show world-changing potential to participate in either the TED or TEDGlobal Conference. They enjoy an exclusive Fellows pre-conference where they meet, share ideas, receive communication training and encounter a few surprises. They also have the opportunity to give a talk before or during TED, and potentially to see their talks posted on TED.com.

Throughout the rest of the year, they will tell their ongoing stories here, on the TED Fellows Blog. At the end of the year, organizers will select 10 of these Fellows to participate in an extended two-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to five consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

Applications for TEDGlobal 2011 open on Monday January 17th! www.ted.com/fellows/apply

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Welcome

I get press releases. A lot of press releases. Most of them are nonsense - they want me to interview celebrity pediatricians or talk about diet plans. But some of them are full of serious, useful information about global health and international development topics that people actually care about.

Unfortunately, I almost never write about the press releases, not even the really good ones. It doesn't come naturally to me, probably because I am not a journalist by trying. And I feel guilty, because, after all, it's useful information about subjects I care about.

So I am going to put the press releases here. Copy and paste them right out of my email. No editorializing, no context. Just the PR. Maybe other people who do write about press releases can find and read them. Maybe they'll be interesting to some people on their own. Or maybe no one will ever look at this blog. No skin off my nose either way.