Positivity: Gates Foundation’s $84 Million Gift

An extraordinary amount, for an important cause:

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives $84 million for children’s health

SEATTLE — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced $84.3 million in grants to help prevent newborn illness and death in 18 developing countries. The grants will expand access to low-tech, low-cost interventions, such as antibiotics and clean childbirth kits, which have the potential to save millions of lives.

“As a parent, I can’t imagine anything more devastating than the loss of a child,” said Melinda Gates. “It’s tragic that millions of newborns die every year, especially when these deaths are so easily preventable.”

Every year, four million newborns die in the first month of life, 99 percent of them in developing countries—equivalent to the number of babies born in the U.S. annually. Three out of four newborn deaths can be prevented with low-cost tools such as antibiotics for pneumonia, sterile blades to cut umbilical cords, and teaching mothers the importance of skin-to-skin contact to keep their babies warm.

“Some global health problems, like AIDS, have no easy solution—but this isn’t one of them,” said Bill Gates. “The world has an opportunity to stop millions of newborn deaths each year.”

The two newborn health grants announced today include:

* $60 million to Save the Children for newborn health projects in 18 developing countries

* $24.3 million to the PATH to support 17 grassroots newborn and maternal health projects in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, India

Bill Gates noted that despite gains in other health areas in developing countries, there has been virtually no progress in reducing newborn deaths.

“If we want to save lives in a big way, we must do a better job of protecting infants, especially during the first month of life,” said Mr. Gates.