I love how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is using innovative strategies to try to find innovative solutions to some of the most serious issues on the planet, such as poverty, hunger, disease and a lack of education. This foundation just announced that 81 projects will receive $100,000 grants for 5-year health research projects such as:
- Growing tomatoes to be an anti-viral drug delivery agent.
- Developing an inexpensive device to diagnose malaria.
- Using lasers to enhance immune response from vaccines.
- Infecting malaria-causing mosquitoes with a fungus that inhibits their ability to smell humans.
These grants are given to encourage scientists to pursue bold ideas that could result in breakthroughs related to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases.
The Gates Foundation also announced that it will be spending $73 million to help small farmers in impoverished countries. This money will be used for a variety of different projects, such as developing drought-tolerant corn, implementing more efficient irrigation, and helping women develop agricultural training programs.
I wonder if God blessed Bill Gates to become one of the world’s richest people because he knew how much good Bill and Melinda would do with the money.
Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Charity, Giving Back, Global Orphan Crisis, Hunger, Poverty, Social Enterprise
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