Attending to the health of women and children

Women and children bear the brunt of unequal access to good healthcare. Each year, nearly 600,000 women and four million newborns die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, primarily in developing nations. Most of these deaths could be prevented with better access to obstetric and family planning services. Studies show that, when given the choice, women will have fewer children than their mothers did. Still, 150 million women who wish to limit or space their childbearing do not have the means to do so. The foundation supports programs that expand access to voluntary family planning services for women and improve access to services for children in the developing world.

Working together for prevention

Life expectancy in the world’s poorest countries is 37 years—about half the life expectancy in the U.S., an intolerable gap that can and must be narrowed. Diseases like malaria and tuberculosis that have been all but eradicated in the industrialized world continue to claim the lives of people in the developing world. Virulent new strains of these maladies have appeared, in part because of poorly coordinated anti-microbial use. Vaccines are one of the least expensive and most effective tools for prevention and to contain the spread of disease. Cooperative arrangements between research scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and governments are vital to the development and distribution of vaccines and other preventive measures. The foundation has committed more than $1 billion to projects focused on the prevention and control of infectious disease.

Extending vaccines to children everywhere

VACCINES are powerful tools for improving health, but 30 million children born each year are not fully immunized. Extending access to existing vaccines to all children could save an additional 3 million lives each year. and there is often a 15-year delay before vaccines routinely available in the developed world reach children in the poorest countries. Extending access to existing vaccines to every child, everywhere, could save an additional 3 million lives every year. The foundation supports The Vaccine Fund to increase access to vaccines, particularly newer and underused vaccines such as Hepatitis B. The foundation also invests in the development of new vaccines against deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Stopping the transmission of AIDS

AIDS discriminates against the poor—those without the information, the resources, or the power to protect themselves. More women are now infected with HIV than men, and millions of mothers have passed the AIDS virus to their children. Ninety-five percent of all new infections occur in developing nations. Stopping the transmission of AIDS is the foundation’s top global health priority. The foundation supports the development of an AIDS vaccine; education and prevention efforts, particularly among those at high risk, including commercial sex workers and IV drug users; and the development of new and effective microbicides.

Forging a future where all of our children can learn

EDUCATION opens the door to a world of possibilities. But high school students in the U.S. are not always prepared to go through that door. Many parents, educators, and young people have begun to ask whether real learning can happen in large, impersonal schools with crowded classrooms and one-size-fits-all lesson plans and tests. What may have worked 50 years ago just doesn’t succeed in today’s interconnected world, and too many children, especially low-income and minority children, simply are not learning what they need to learn to survive in the global economy. Now many people are calling for a fundamental reexamination what our schools look like and how they function, to ensure that all students are prepared for the future.

Students need to be ready for college when they graduate high school. From Alaska to Maine, Illinois to Louisiana, American high schools are redesigning themselves to meet 21st century challenges. The goal is to create small, personalized schools where all children can apply themselves, feel safe, and learn. A small high school in rural Minnesota, run by a teachers’ cooperative, works to create lesson plans tailored to each student’s needs and abilities. The expectations are high, and the teaching is rigorous. Lessons are designed to teach kids the analytical, research, and communications skills they’ll need to succeed in college. Sixteen high schools in Washington state have undertaken similar reforms. The foundation also supports scholarships for high-achieving, low-income students to pursue their dreams, so that more young people can take advantage of the opportunities available to Americans with a college degree.