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THE GATES
FOUNDATION Bill and Melinda
Gates believe every life has equal value. In 2000,
they created the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation to help reduce inequities in the United
States and around the world. Headquartered in
Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by
co-chairs Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and William H.
Gates Sr., and by CEO Patty Stonesifer. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/ We want to support
African farmers, who produce food under the most
difficult conditions, by improving the agricultural
sector from seed to market. AFRICA'S GROWTH
INDUSTRY A New Green Revolution for
African Farmers and Their Families One in three
Africans suffers from hunger. And the problem is
getting worse, not better. There are many reasons
for this crisis. The soil is becoming less fertile
as Africans have to farm it more intensively to
keep up with population pressure. Meanwhile,
African farmers don't have access to four things
essential to successful agriculture: improved,
high-quality seeds that are well-suited to local
conditions; farming inputs like organic and mineral
fertilizers and irrigation; opportunities to learn
and test new farming techniques; and commercial
markets where they can sell crops. To help African
farmers and their families, we teamed up with the
Rockefeller Foundation, which has decades of
experience working on agriculture issues in Africa
and has earned the trust of agricultural leaders in
many African countries, to launch the Alliance for
a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA). We want to
support African farmers, who produce food under the
most difficult conditions, by improving the
agricultural sector from seed to market. Our goal
is to help 30 million Africans, who now live in
hunger and extreme poverty, live better
lives. Green Revolution
The original Green
Revolution of the mid-20th century, which fed
hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Latin
America who wouldn't have had enough to eat, barely
reached Africa. In some places, the contributed to
inequity and environmental degradation. This new
Green Revolution will heed the lessons of the past;
it will increase productivity while also focusing
on small farmers, protecting the environment, and
reducing inequity. AGRA's first
initiative, the Program for Africa's Seed
Systems (PASS), exemplifies the results we hope to
achieve. PASS is focused on reducing hunger and
growing the economy in rural areas by increasing
the production of nutritious crops, including
African staples (such as cowpea, millet, and
sorghum) and species widely adopted by African
farmers (such as maize, cassava, and
beans). PASS is investing
$150 million to develop and distribute new crop
varieties in 16 countries. Currently, 75
percent of African farmers don't use any form of
improved crops. But we hope that in the next five
years the program will introduce 100 well-adapted
crop varieties and distribute these improved seeds,
train hundreds of Africans in agricultural science,
build community seed systems, and help set up
10,000 small agro-dealers who can work with small
farmers to improve their equipment and
practices. In the near future,
AGRA will add more partners and launch additional
initiatives aimed at issues such as improving the
health of soils and expanding farmers' access to
markets.st of agricultural leaders in many African
countries, http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/public/media/annualreports/annualreport06/AR2006GD4.html Toward a
Healthier World Millions of
people&emdash;most of them children&emdash;die each
year in developing countries from diseases that are
preventable and treatable. Moreover, tragically
little research is done to prevent or cure some of
the world's biggest killers, such as malaria and
tuberculosis. The foundation is
guided by the belief that all lives, no matter
where they are lived, have equal value. The mission
of our Global Health Program is to encourage the
development of lifesaving medical advances and to
help ensure they reach the people who are
disproportionately affected. We focus our funding
in two main areas: Access to existing
vaccines, drugs, and other tools to fight diseases
common in developing countries Research to develop
health solutions that are effective, affordable,
and practical |
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A
GREAT GUEST HOUSE IN UGANDA.
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