Foundation Blog

The Official Blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Posted by Melinda French Gates on September 01, 2010

Immunization — A Key to Reducing Child Deaths

Vaccines are a miracle. With just a few doses, they protect children from deadly diseases for a lifetime. They are extremely cost effective, and they save lives. Vaccines led to the eradication of smallpox, and they are responsible for the amazing fact that polio cases have gone down by 99 percent in just 20 years. More

Posted by Melinda French Gates on August 31, 2010

Saving Women’s and Children’s Lives by Controlling Malaria

The world has set goals to reduce child deaths, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as other poverty-related challenges--the Millennium Development Goals. I’ll be discussing the MDGs more this week as part of the lead-up to TEDxChange, a TED event looking at the progress we’ve made toward achieving these goals. (You can RSVP for the live webcast via Facebook.) More

Posted by Melinda French Gates on August 30, 2010

Celebrating the Simple, Lifesaving Act of Breastfeeding

This week, I’ll be blogging every day about the Millennium Development Goals, the focus of our upcoming TEDxChange event. Today I want to focus on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding. Because of the increased number of mothers who are breastfeeding more young children are surviving and thriving. More

Posted by Melinda French Gates on August 26, 2010

Announcing the Winning GOOD/Gates Foundation Poster

We were impressed with the many excellent submissions we received for our Millennium Development Goals poster design contest, organized in partnership with GOOD. More

Posted by Tachi Yamada on August 26, 2010

Smallpox Eradication Taught Us How to Fight Polio: Now We Need to Win the Battle

When I was growing up in Japan, my close friend Keichi Maruyama, who lived right next door to me, was crippled from polio. More

Posted by Walt Orenstein on August 25, 2010

Lessons Learned from Smallpox: When Eradication is the Goal, One Case Is One Too Many

I will never forget March 16, 1975. It had been almost four months since I began working in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh (UP), to try to eradicate smallpox. More

Posted by Melinda French Gates on August 24, 2010

A New Way to Join the Conversation

We’re grateful to the half-million friends who already follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Today I’m happy to announce that we’re launching our community page, a new way for people to take part in the ongoing conversation around global health, development, and education issues. More

Posted by Sylvia Mathews Burwell on August 18, 2010

Hope on a Hillside: Helping Small Farmers Help Themselves

Somewhere in Rwanda, a rural farmer is dreaming of providing an education for her children. Not just high school, but maybe even a university degree. Such a dream used to seem out of reach. More

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